^J.HINTON 


asrsi 

I 


Robert  Williamson  Brokaw 


u 


GEN.  PHILIP  H.  SHERIDAN 


LITTLE  PHIL"  AND  HIS  TROOPERS. 


THE  LIFE 


OF 


GEN.  PHILIP  H.SHERIDAN 

'Romance  and 


HOW  AN  HUMBLE  LAD  REACHED  THE 
HEAD   OF  AN  ARMY. 

THE  CAREER  AND  ACHIEVEMENTS  OF  THIS  MASTERLY  LEADER 
OF  MEN  IN  BATTLE;  REALISTIC  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  THE 
MARCH,  RAID,  AND  CHARGE  OF  THE  HORSEMEN  ;  AND 
GRAPHIC  SKETCHES  OF  OTHER  GREAT  CAVALRY  LEADERS. 


BY  FRANK  A.,  BURR, 


OF  THE  SECOND  MICHIGAN  CAVALRY,  AUTHOR  OF  THE  "  LIFE  AND  DEEDS  OF  GENERAL 
U.  S.  GRANT,"  "GENERAL  JAMES  A.  BEAVER,"  "BATTLES  OF  CHICKAMAUGA 
AND  FRANKLIN,"  ETC. 

AND 


RICHARD  J.  HINTON, 


OF  THE  U.  S.  COLORED  TROOPS,  AUTHOR  OF  THE  "  ARMY  OF  THE  BORDER,"  "  ENGLISH 
RADICAL  LEADERS,"  "HAND-BOOK  TO  ARIZONA,"  "POPULAR  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  H. 
SEWARD,"  "  REPORT  ON  IRRIGATION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES,"  ETC. 


ILLUSTRATED. 


PROVIDENCE,  R.  1.:   J.    A.   &   R.   A.  REID,   PUBLISHERS. 

1888. 


PRINTERS. 

J.  A.  &  R.  A.  REID,       .      PROVIDENCE,  R.  I. 


ENGRAVERS  AND  ARTISTS. 

RUSSELL  &  RICHARDSON,  .  BOSTON,  MASS. 

KILBURN  &  CROSS, 

CHARLES  S.  HOYT, 

J.  P.  MURPHY  &  CO.,    - 

N.  BROWN, 

CHARLES  COPELAND, 

FRANK  MYRICK, 

J.  E.  TAYLOR,      •  •  NEW  YORK  CITY. 


ELECTROTYPER. 

L.  W.   ROGERS,  BOSTON,  MASS. 


PHOTOGRAPHS. 

MAINLY    FROM    THE  LOYAL    LEGION    COLLECTION,  BOSTON, 

BY  PERMISSION. 


COPYRIGHT, 
BY   J.  A.   &   R.   A.    REID. 

1888. 


$>% 


PUBLISHERS'   NOTE. 


THE  story  of  the  life  of  General  Sheridan  seemed  to  the  publishers 
of  this  volume  a  matter  of  public  interest  well  worth  recording.  He  had 
had  a  great  and  romantic  career.  At  the  time  the  work  was  first  con- 
templated there  was  a  possibility  of  his  being  the  candidate  of  a  great 
political  party  for  President  of  the  United  States,  if  not  in  '88,  perhaps 
in^'92.  However  this  might  be,  the  publishers  believed  that  the  public 
would  fully  appreciate  a  Life  of  Sheridan,  and  that  it  would  meet  with 
a  substantial  sale.  They  therefore  entered  upon  the  work  of  furnishing 
it.  It  was  the  intention  to  have  thus  honored  Sheridan  while  he  was 
living.  There  was  no  popular  life  written  that  the  publishers  knew  of, 
nor  any  intimation  of  one,  and  the  General's  Memoirs  had  not  been 
announced.* 

Under  these  circumstances,  it  appeared  good  judgment  and  a  legiti- 
mate business  enterprise  to  perfect  and  publish  in  a  creditable  and  con- 
venient form  such  a  "Life"  as  should  be  within  the  reach  of  the 
humblest  American,  to  whom  the  story  of  "  Little  Phil's"  career  is  of 
as  much  interest  as  to  the  highest. 

With  this  object  in  view  the  names  of  a  number  of  distinguished 
writers  were  considered.  After  due  deliberation,  arrangements  were 
made  with  the  author,  who  was  quite  familiar  with  the  subject.  He 
had  served  in  the  army  under  Sheridan,  had  much  of  the  needed 
material  already  collected,  and  had  such  previous  training  as  was  ample 
to  qualify  him  for  the  work  proposed. 

The  writing,  gathering  of  materials,  the  manufacture  of  the  paper 
for  the  first  edition,  the  making  of  the  engravings,  arranging  with  agents 

*In  justice  to  themselves  it  should  be  stated  that  the  Memoirs  were  not  publicly,  or  to  the  trade, 
announced  until  some  months  after  prospectus  circulars  regarding  this  work  had  been  sent  out  by 
the  publishers. 


4  PUBLISHERS'  NOTE. 

in  different  parts  of  the  country,  etc.,  were  pushed  with  all  possible 
energy,  that  the  book  might  be  available  for  sale  during  the  campaign, 
should  "Little  Phil"  be  one  of  the  nominees  for  the  presidency.  It 
was  also  considered  wise  to  associate  with  Colonel  Burr,  Colonel 
Richard  J.  Hinton,  an  author  of  repute  and  a  soldier  of  distinction,  to 
bring  the  work  to  a  successful  issue. 

The  information  regarding  the  youth  of  Sheridan  was  gathered  at 
his  early  home,  from  his  mother  and  her  neighbors,  and  much  of  the 
material  from  the  General  himself,  while  a  large  portion,  forming  the 
great  life  work  of  the  General,  was  public  property,  and  open  to  all 
having  the  literary  ability  to  bring  the  facts  together,  and  give  in  con- 
secutive and  rounded  form  the  story  of  the  man  and  the  soldier. 

Later  came  the  sickness  of  the  General,  the  long  suspense,  and  his 
death.  The  publishers  then  deemed  it  wise  to  delay  the  work  to 
enable  them  to  include  the  events  in  the  last  sad  chapters  of  the 
General's  career. 

They  have  considered  the  life  and  services  of  General  Sheridan,  as 
they  would  those  of  Washington,  Lincoln,  or  Grant,  a  matter  of  public 
record  and  of  public  interest,  and  have  endeavored  to  do  the  work  with 
honor  to  the  General  and  credit  to  themselves  —  and  without  detriment 
to  others. 

How  well  the  work  has  been  performed,  and  how  well  Colonels 
Burr  and  Hinton  have  succeeded  in  portraying  the  life  of  the  hero  in  a 
popular  manner,  as  they  saw  and  knew  it,  the  publishers  leave  to  the 
judgment  of  the  reader  to  decide. 

That  there  may  be  no  good  reason  for  misinterpreting  or  misrepre- 
senting, as  has  been  attempted,  either  the  book  itself,  or  the  motives  of 
its  publishers,  they  are  thus  explicit. 

THE  PUBLISHERS. 


PREFACE. 


THE  CAVALRYMAN. 

ABOUT  the  man  who  fights  on  horseback  the  romance  of  war  has 
always  centred.  From  the  first  chronicled  battle  the  horseman  has  been 
not  only  the  most  picturesque,  but  the  most  dramatic  figure  in  warfare. 
Writers  who  have  recorded  the  history  of  armed  conflicts  have  found 
the  most  thrilling  climaxes  in  the  sweep  of  riding  squadrons.  Tenny- 
son's "Charge  of  the  Light  Brigade"  will  be  read  when  the  stories 
of  greater  combats  have  been  forgotten. 

In  the  days  of  chivalry  the  mounted  man  was  the  main  reliance  in 
war.  But  gradually  the  more  deadly  musket  became  the  chief  instru- 
ment of  death.  Drill  and  discipline  were  reduced  to  a  science.  The 
art  of  war  was  revolutionized. 

There  have  been  still  greater  changes  since.  The  duties  of  mounted 
men  have  greatly  expanded.  They  not  only  rush  upon  the  solid  lines 
of  infantry,  in  battle  array,  but  in  a  thousand  minor  ways  lend  aid  and 
inspiration  to  great  armies.  They  flash  upon  the  flanks  of  the  enemy, 
and  make  daring  raids  for  the  destruction  of  lines  of  communication  or 
war  supplies.  They  are  the  swift  annoyance  of  the  enemy,  the  rest- 
less messengers  of  defeat  and  death.  The  hoof-beats  of  the  horseman 
fall  through  every  gap  in  the  lines,  and  the  reckless  charge  marks  the 
end  of  battle,  and  the  beginning  of  pursuit. 

The  cavalry  feels  the  enemy,  and  reports  upon  the  presence  and  con- 
dition of  his  armies.  It  is  the  resistless  support  of  the  infantry  in  the 
horrible  clash  of  steel  which  forces  the  final  decision.  Such,  in  greater 


6  PREFACE. 

or  less  degree,  has  been  its  place  and  function  for  many  years.  But  in 
our  late  war  it  largely  increased  its  usefulness,,  and  won  a  broader  recog- 
nition than  ever  before . 

The  cavalryman  still  maintains  his  romantic  preeminence.  The 
poet  who  sings  of  battle  instinctively  makes  the  trooper  his  model. 
Read  "Paul  Revere's  Ride"  to  arouse  the  men  of  Middlesex,  "  Loch- 
invar,"  Tom  Hood's  "Wild  Steed  of  the  Plains,"  and  a  dozen  other 
songs,  where  even  a  single  trooper  has  made  his  cause  famous.  The 
rush  of  Murat's  squadrons  is  heard  through  all  the  long  story  of  Na- 
poleon's struggle  for  existence.  With  us  the  record  has  been  the  same. 
The  history  of  the  Revolution  is  enriched  by  the  exploits  of  Marion's 
horsemen.  Black-horse  cavalry  has  been  ever  a  conspicuous  figure  in 
the  romance  of  all  wars.  In  our  latest  conflict,  the  music  of  battle 
comes  to  us  laden  with  the  blare  of  Sheridan's  bugles  and  the  rush  of 
Stuart's  rough  riders.  Ouster's  resistless  charges,  Kilpatrick's  raids, 
Pleasonton's,  Torbett's,  Wilson's,  Merritt's,  Gregg's  swift  dashes  by  day 
and  by  night,  are  filled  with  the  vigor  of  movement  and  the  charm  of 
success.  Buford,  Bayard,  Grierson,  and  a  hundred  other  generals, 
knights  of  the  sabre  and  the  stirrup,  fill  in  a  wonderful  picture  of  dash- 
ing heroism  that  will  live  in  song  and  story  as  long  as  the  record  of 
war  is  read.  These  horsemen  taught  the  world  new  lessons  of  the 
uses  of  cavalry.  The  story  of  Brandy  Station,  Kilpatrick's  raid  on 
Richmond,  the  charge  at  Yellow  Tavern,  the  cavalry  fight  at  Trevil- 
ian  Station,  Sheridan's  first  battle  at  Booneville,  the  romance  of  Wil- 
son's raid,  and  the  rough  experiences  of  AverilPs  battalions,  will  form 
for  all  mankind  a  thrilling  and  instructive  story.  To  record  the  heroism 
of  the  men  on  horseback,  directed,  as  it  was  in  our  war,  by  the  best 
intelligence  and  the  loftiest  patriotism,  as  embodied  in  the  person  of 
their  commanding  general,  Philip  H.  Sheridan,  is  the  purpose  of  these 
pages. 

F.  A.  B. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    I. 
SHERIDAN  AS  A   GENERAL. 

Grant's  Estimate  of  Sheridan  —  His  First  Impressions  of  the  Great  Cavalryman 
—  His  Qualities  as  a  Commander  —  His  Second  Meeting  with  Grant  — 
Sheridan's  Place  in  History — Closing  Scenes  of  the  Rebellion,  Pages  17-21 

CHAPTER    II. 
SHERIDAN'S    BOYHOOD  DAYS. 

The  Humble  Home  in  Ohio  —  His  Family  and  Early  Life  —  Traditions  of  the 
Country-Side  Concerning  Him  —  A  Clerk  in  the  Country  Store  —  Appoint- 
ment to  West  Point — Anecdotes  of  Sheridan's  Youth  —  His  Early  Educa- 
tion and  Opportunities, Pages  22-28 

CHAPTER  III. 
WEST  POINT  AND  THE  ARMY. 

His  Life  at  the  Military  Academy  on  the  Hudson  —  Early  Experiences  in  the 
Army  after  Graduation  —  Interesting  Stories  of  Frontier  Life  —  Outbreak 
of  the  Rebellion  —  His  First  Service  in  War  —  Not  a  Very  Brilliant 
Beginning, Pages  29-44 

CHAPTER  IV. 

AN  UNEXPECTED  PROMOTION. 

How  Sheridan  was  Made  a  Colonel  —  Captain  Alger's  Ride  and  Its  Results  — 
Corinth  and  Pittsburg  Landing  —  Governor  Blair's  Hesitancy  —  The  Ap- 
pointment—  Notified  of  His  Advancement  —  Satisfied  with  the  Rank  of 
Colonel  —  Takes  Command  of  His  Regiment  —  Its  First  Impression  of 
Him, ,  Pages  45-49 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE  BATTLE  OF  BOONEVILLE. 

Sheridan's  First  Battle  —  It  was  at  Booneville,  Mississippi — Strength  of  His 
Command — Its  Perilous  Position  —  How  He  Managed  His  Troops — Send- 
ing for  Reinforcements  —  The  Scout  and  the  Negro  —  Fooling  the  Enemy  — 
Captain  Alger  and  the  "  Forlorn  Hope  "  — The  Last  Charge,  and  a  Com- 
plete Victory,  ..........  Pages  51-61 

CHAPTER  VI. 
A  NEW  COMMAND. 

Transferred  to  the  Infantry — Higher  Command  but  Less  Congenial  Service  — 
Battles  of  Corinth  and  luka  —  Making  the  Most  of  Small  Opportunity  — 


8  CONTENTS. 

Transfer  to  General  Buell's  Army  —  Commanding  a  Division  at  Perryville 

—  Saving  Loomis'  Battery  —  Victory  out  of  Defeat,       .         .         Pages  63-74 

CHAPTER  VII.  ' 
FROM  PERRYVILLE  TO  STONE  RIVER. 

Sheridan's  Place  in  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland  —  Preparing  for  Murfreesboro' 

—  Sheridan    Leads   the  Way  —  Battle  of   Stone    River — Deadly   Wrestle 
with  Cheatham  —  Commended  for  Distinguished  Services,      .     Pages  75-92 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
MOVING   TOWARDS   CHICKAMAUGA. 

The  Tullahoma  Campaign  —  Sheridan's  Part  in  Rosecrans'  Movements  —  Always 
on  Time  and  in  the  Right  Place  —  Incidents  of  His  Life  on  the  March  and 
in  Camp — Estimated  by  His  Men — A  Popular  General  —  A  Hard  Fighter 
and  Good  Tactician,  ........  Pages  94-109 

CHAPTER  IX. 
THE  BATTLE  OF  CHICKAMAUGA. 

The  Field  in  which  Sheridan  was  Trained —  Rosecrans'  Movements  —  How  the 
Commander  of  Cavalry  was  Made  — The  Deadly  Chickamauga  —  Sheridan 
and  Davis  Save  the  Right  Wing —  Holding  the  Gap  at  Dry  Valley —  Long- 
street's  Veterans  —  Fighting  Cheatham  Again  —  Always  a  Power  on  March 
and  Field, Pages  110-121 

CHAPTER  X. 

AT  CHATTANOOGA. 

A  Desperate  Situation  —  Helping  a  Starving  Army — Taking  Part  in  the  Battle 
of  Missionary  Ridge — Leading  a  Desperate  Charge  up  the  Heights  — 
A  Singular  Story  of  War  —  With  Grant  on  Orchard  Knob  —  Looking  at 
Hooker's  Fight  —  A  Great  Day's  Work  —  Commended  for  Gallantry  and 
Ability,  ..........  Pages  123-136 

CHAPTER  XL 
A  BATTLE  IN  THE  SNOW. 

Cole's  Cavalry  Have  a  Fight  — Moseby  Attacks  and  is  Beaten  Off  —  A  Battle  to 
the  Death— "Fire  the  Tents  and  Shoot  by  the  Light "— Suffering  of  the 
Men  —  The  Death  of  Young  Paxton,  ....  Pages  137-144 

CHAPTER   XII. 
SUMMONED  TO  WASHINGTON. 

Hard  Service  After  Chattanooga  —  Grant  Puts  Him  in  Command  of  All  the 
Cavalry  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  —  Disgusted  at  Being  Ordered  East  — 
The  Confidence  He  Inspired  —  Roster  of  the  Cavalry  Corps  —  Dispute  with 
Meade — Changing  Sheridan's  Orders  and  its  Results,  .  Pages  145-153 


CONTENTS.  9 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
FROM    THE  WILDERNESS   TO  JAMES  RIVER. 

Howard's  Review  of  the  Field  —  From  Virginia  to  Louisiana — The  Cavalry  and 
its  Temper  —  Moving  to  the  Wilderness  —  Guarding  Roads  and  Supplies  — 
Losses  in  the  May  Fighting  —  Sheridan's  First  Great  Raid  Round  Richmond 
—  The  Yellow  Tavern  Fight  —  Rejoining  the  Army,  .  Pages  155-165 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
BREAKING   THE  CONFEDERATE  COMMUNICATIONS. 

Sheridan's  Second  Great  Virginia  Raid  —  Intended  to  Connect  with  Hunter  — 
Operations  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley  —  The  Rebel  Cavalry  Leaders  — 
Destroying  the  Virginia  Central  Railroad  — Fight  at  Trevilian  Station  — 
Consternation  in  Richmond  —  Return  to  City  Point  —  Operations  About 
Petersburg  —  Wilson  and  Kautz  South  of  Richmond  —  The  Battle  of  Reams 
Station,  ...........  Pages  167-174 

CHAPTER    XV. 
FROM  CORPS   TO  DEPARTMENT  COMMANDER. 

The  Shenandoah  Valley —  Hunter  and  Early  —  The  Valley's  Importance  to  the 
Confederates  —  Cavalry  Raids  on  Railroads — Washington  in  Danger  — 
The  Mine  Explosion  —  How  Sheridan  Became  a  Department  Commander  — 
Maker  of  His  Own  Career  —  Likeness  to  Napoleon,  .  Pages  175-183 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
IN  THE   SHENANDOAH  VALLEY. 

Sheridan  as  Department  Commander  —  His  First  Chance  to  Demonstrate  His 
Ability  to  Command  —  Early  is  Reinforced  by  Gordon  and  Lomax  —  The 
Appearance  of  the  Rebel  Commander  —  The  Army  Roster  —  Sheridan's 
,  Preparations  —Attack  and  Pursuit  —  The  Story  of  the  Loyal  Quakeress  — 
How  He  Got  Intelligence  — The  Battle  of  Winchester  — Cavalry  Charge  at 
Opequan  —  Victories  of  Fisher's  Hill  and  Cedar  Creek,  .  Pages  185-204 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
SNATCHING  VICTORY  FROM  THE  JAWS  OF  DEFEAT. 

Lincoln's  Little  Story  About  General  Cass  —  Change  of  the  Troops  —  Meddling 
at  Washington  with  Grant's  Orders  —  Wright  Surprised  at  Cedar  Creek  — 
Rout  of  the  Nineteenth  Corps  —  Sheridan's  Ride  "  to  Save  the  Day"  — 
Defeats  Early  and  Gordon — What  He  Said  of  His  Victory  —  Thanks  of 
President  and  Congress — Promotion  in  the  Regular  Army  —  The  Horse  He 
Rode,  ...........  Pages  205-215 


io  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XVIIL 
GORDON'S    MORNING   SURPRISE  AT,. CEDAR  CREEK. 

Gordon  Under  Early — A  Distinguished  Confederate  Soldier  —  An  Interview 
About  Cedar  Creek  —  Commanding  Ewell's  Old  Corps —  How  He  Planned 
the  Attack  on  Wright  — Turning  Our  Flapk  Successfully— Rout  of  the 
Eighth  Corps  —  Early's  Folly  —  Done  Enough  for  One  Day — Sheridan's 
Arrival  —  A  Union  Victory,  ..."  ...  Pages  217-227 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
SHERIDAN'S  RIDE. 

The  Dash  to  Cedar  Creek—  How  the  Ride  was  Made  —  Sheridan's  War-Horse 
—  A  Desperate  Situation —The  Tide  of  Battle  Running  Against  the  Union 
Troops  — A  Fresh  Inspiration  for  the  Army  —  How  the  Story  of  it  Came  to 
be  Written  —  How  T.  Buchanan  Read  Got  His  Inspiration,  Pages  229-236 

CHAPTER   XX. 
THE  UNION  CAVALRY  AND  ITS  COMMANDERS. 

How  Our  Cavalry  Became  Effective  —  Mounted  Infantry  and  its  Uses — Sheri- 
dan and  Cavalry  Reorganization  —  How  the  Commanders  were  Bred — The 
Battle  of  Tom's  Run,  and  the  "  Woodstock  Races  "  —  A  Graphic  Description 
of  Battle  —  Custer,  the  Embodiment  of  War— Stories  of  the  Yellow-Haired 
Cavalryman  —  Sketches  of  Other  Commanders  —  The  Value  of  Cavalry  — 
Destroying  Railroads, Pages  237-255 

CHAPTER  XXI. 
FROM  THE  VALLEY  TO  CITY  POINT. 

How  Sheridan  Went  Back  to  Grant  —  Clearing  the  Loudoun  and  Luray  Valleys  — 
Great  Importance  of  Sheridan's  New  Orders  —  Grant  Preparing  for  the  Last 
Fights  —  The  Upper  Shenandoah  Left  Free  of  a  Foe — Custer's  Bold  Fight 
for  Rockford  Gap  —  Early's  Rout  and  Disappearance  —  Surrender  of  Char- 
.  lottesville —  Destruction  of  the  James  River  Canal — Burning  Bridges  — 
Blowing  up  Locks  —  Destroying  Railroads  —  Panic  in  Richmond  —  Con- 
federate Government  Ready  to  take  Horseback — At  City  Point  —  Grant's 
Orders  —  Sheridan's  Desire  to  "  End  the  Business  Right  Here  "  —  The  Way 
to  Five  Forks,  .........  Pages  257-267 

CHAPTER    XXII. 
SHERIDAN'S  PURSUIT  OF    LEE. 

A  Masterly  Military  Achievement — The  Battle  of  Five  Forks  —  How  General 
Lee  was  Out-Manoeuvered  — The  Battle-Field  as  a  Strategetical  Point  —  The 
Corps  and  Soldiers  Engaged  —  Young  Chamberlain's  Splendid  Fight  — 
For  "  the  Honor  of  the  Fifth  Corps  "  —  Sheridan's  Grand  Tactics  —  Using 
His  Cavalry  as  a  Screen  —  A  Battle  of  Giants  —  Savage  Fighting  all  Day  — 


CONTENTS.  1 1 

Sheridan  Seldom  Out  of  Fire  — Ouster's  Yellow  Locks  at  the  Front  — The 
"  Barn  Door"  Movement  and  How  it  Worked  —  Galloping  Down  the  Lines 

—  Mounting   the   Confederate  Breastworks  —  General  Winthrop's  Death  — 
"  Straighten  that  Line  "  —  Victory — Captures —  Surrender —  The  Solemn 
Night  Scene  at  Gravelly  Run,      .  ....         Pages  269-280 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 
SHERIDAN  AT  THE  SURRENDER. 

The  Five  Forks  Environment  —  Striking  at  Appomattox  —  Fighting  Before  Day- 
break—  Standing  to  Horse  all  Night  —  Rapid  Cavalry  Movements  —  Over- 
riding Meade  —  Surrounding  Lee  —  Sheridan's  Distrust  —  The  Truce  — 
Gordon  and  the  Sharpshooter —  Grant  and  Sheridan  Meet —  The  Surrender 
of  Lee  —  "  Carrying  the  World  "  on  Their  Shoulders,  .  Pages  281-303 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 
THE    CONFEDERATE  CAVALRYMEN. 

The  Southern  Advantage  at  First — Cavalry  Officers  Making  Fine  Command- 
ers —  Planter  and  Farmer  Finding  Their  Horses  as  Troopers  —  Wade 
Hampton  and  Ashby  Legions  —  "Jeb"  Stuart  Their  Best  Commander  — 
Southwestern  Leaders  Also  —  How  General  Lee  left  the  Union  Service  — 
The  Lees  —  Rosser  —  Moseby  —  What  Grant  Said  of  the  Virginian  Partisan 

—  Services  to  the  Confederacy  —  What  Lee  Said  of  His  Usefulness  —  The 
"  Boys  "  are  Marching  Home  Again  —  Not  All  of  Them,     Pages  304-316 

CHAPTER  XXV. 
A  WARNING  ON  THE  Rio  GRANDE. 

Sheridan  is  Sent  to  Texas  —  Grant's  Love  for  "  Little  Phil  " — After  the  Grand 
Review  —  Logan,  Reynolds,  Blunt,  Pope,  and  Weitzel,  Organizing — What 
was  Designed  for  Mexico  —  Escabedo  and  Cortinas  on  the  Lower  Grande  — 
How  the  Imperialist  Mejia  Felt  Their  Power— Abandoned  United  States 
Material  Obtained  by  Mexico  —  Jaurez  at  Paso  Del  Norte  — The  Old  Church 

—  Our  California  Cavalrymen  —  How  the  Mexican  Republicans  were  Aided 
by  the  Union — Difficult  Task  to  Maintain  Order  in  Texas,        Pages  317-329 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

SHERIDAN  IN  RECONSTRUCTION  DAYS. 

Conditions  Preceding  and  Attending  Reconstruction — Commanding  in  the  Gulf 
States — New  Orleans  —  Andrew  Johnson's  Interference  —  Mechanics  Hall 
Massacre  —  Reconstruction  Legislation  —  Sheridan's  Service  Under  It  — 
Shows  Excellent  Executive  Ability — Ejecting  a  Governor — His  Bandit 
Deliverance — He  Gives  the  President  the  "  Lie  Direct"  —  Able  but 
Thankless  Service  —  Appointment  of  General  Hancock,  .  Pages  330-341 


12  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 
IN  COMMAND  AT  FORT  LEAVENWQRTH  AND  CHICAGO. 

Commanding  the  Department  of  Missouri  —  Indian  Wars  and  Disturbances  — 
Serious  Military  Operations  Necessitated—  Removing  Tribes  from  the  Great 
Plains  —  Campaign  Against  the  Kiowas,  Comanches,  and  Cheyennes — 
Made  a  Lieutenant-General  —  Where  and  How  the  News  was  Received  — 
Headquarters  in  Chicago  —  Visit  to  Europe  —  Sheridan  at  Sedan  —  Hob- 
Nobbing  with  Bismarck — The  Great  Fire  —  Marriage  and  Removal  to 
•  Washington, Pages  343-360 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 
SHERIDAN'S  HOME  AND  FAMILY  LIFE. 

The  General's  Washington  Residence  —  Mrs.  Sheridan  and  '  the  Children  — 
Domestic  Character  of  Husband  and  Father— Home  Interiors  —  Parlor  and 
Library— The  General's  Office  in  the  War  Department  —  His  Staff  Officers 

—  Incidents  and  Associations— His  Health  —  The  Fatal  Sickness  —  Nonquit 

—  Life  Closes  Amid  Nature's  Beauty,          ....         Pages  361-378 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 
His  DEATH-BED  AND  THE  RETURN  TO  WASHINGTON. 

Sad  Scenes  at  Nonquit — The  General's  Death  —  Grief  of  the  Family — What 
the  Doctors  Said  —  A  Simple  Military  Funeral  Decided  Upon —  Sheridan  in 
His  Casket —  Removal  to  Washington  —  Passage  from  New  Bedford  to  New 
York — The  Veterans  of  the  Pennsylvania  Road  —  In  Silent  Respect  Along 
the  Route — Arrival  at  Washington, Pages  379-397 

CHAPTER    XXX. 
SHERIDAN'S   LAST  RIDE. 

Lying  in  State  —  O^uaint  and  Quiet  St.  Matthew's  —  The  Widow's  Last  Fare- 
well —  The  Decorations  and  Catafalque  —  Chanting  the  Requiem  —  Scenes 
in  the  Church  —  The  Distinguished  Congregation — Altar  Boys  and 
Dominican  Monks — Cardinal  Gibbon's  Sermon  —  The  Funeral  Pageant  — 
Bugler  Kimball  Sounds  "Tap-Taps" — "Put  Out  the  Lights"  —  "Good- 
Night" —  Historic  Arlington  and  Sheridan's  Grave,  .  Pages  400-421 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 
GENERAL  SHERIDAN'S  LIFE   AND  CAREER  —  A  REVIEW. 

Sheridan's  Services — Opinions  of  Contemporaries  —  Character  and  Position  as 
a  Soldier —  As  a  Citizen  and  Man  — A  Wonderful  Story  of  Great  Deeds  —  A 
Romance  of  War  —  An  Honorable  and  Upright  Personality — His  Graphic 
Powers  as  a  Writer — Badeau's  Testimony  —  Brief  Speeches  at  Army 
Reunions,  ..........  Pages  422-437 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE. 
THE  LATE  RESIDENCE  OF  SHERIDAN'S  MOTHER,  SOMERSET,  OHIO,      .  21 

HOME  OF  SHERIDAN'S  BOYHOOD,  SOMERSET,  OHIO,  .  .  25 

PONTOON  BOAT  —  ORNAMENTAL  PIECE,      .....  28 

STORE  AT  SOMERSET,  OHIO,     .  .  .  .  .  .  -35 

Where  Sheridan  Served  as  a  Clerk,  (Present  Appearance  of  Building.) 

THE  OUTBREAK  OF  THE  REBELLION — THE  ATTACK  ON  SUMTER,  .       39 

THE  ROUGH  RIDERS,  .......  133 

A  Street  Cavalry  Fight  in  Kernstown,  Va. 

ON  THE  MARCH  —  ORNAMENTAL  PIECE,          .....     144 
A  LANDSCAPE  —  ORNAMENTAL  PIECE,      .  .  .  .  .  174 

GENERAL  SHERIDAN'S  HEADQUARTERS,  .  .  .  .  .185 

East  Side  of  Cedar  Creek,  after  the  Battle  of  Fisher's  Hill. 

THE  OPEOJJAN  FORD,  .......  195 

Where  Sheridan  Crossed  his  Army  before  the  Battle  of  Winchester. 

THE  STONE  BRIDGE  AT  FISHER'S  HILL,         .....     209 

Where,  on  Sheridan's  Rallying  the  Union  Army,  October  19,  1864,  a  large  Body  of  Con- 
federate Prisoners  was  Taken. 

SHERIDAN'S  RIDE,  ........  228 

From  an  Original  Painting  by  Copeland,  of  Boston. 

GENERAL  SHERIDAN'S  HEADQUARTERS  AT  WINCHESTER,    .  .  .     236 

The  Residence  of  Lloyd  Logan,  Esq. 

SHERIDAN  ON  THE  ROAD  TO  FIVE  FORKS,  ....          268 

Taking  his  Bearings  from  the  "  Reliable  Contraband." 

LAS  CRUCES,  VALLEY  OF  MESILA,  NEW  MEXICO,      .  .  .  -321 

Headquarters  of  the  California  Brigade. 

THE  PLAZA  AND  CHURCH  OF  PASO  DEL  NORTE,  CHIHUAHUA,  MEXICO,  325 

The  Old  Church  Held  as  a  Fortress  by  the  Mexican  Republicans. 

LATE  RESIDENCE  OF  GENERAL  SHERIDAN,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  .     363 


i4  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

ARMY  HEADQUARTERS,  WASHINGTON — STATE,  WAR,  AND  NAVY  BUILDING,   370 
CABIN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  STEAMSHIP  SWATARA,      .  377 

In  which  Sheridan  was  removed  fo  Nonquit. 

THE  SHERIDAN  COTTAGE  AT  NONQUIT,  .     385 

Where  the  General  Died,  August  5,  iSSS. 

THE  NATIONAL  CEMETERY,  ARLINGTON,  .  .  418 

Showing  the  Graves  of  Many  of  the  Union  Dead  in  the  Southwestern  Section  of  the  Grounds. 

THE  ARLINGTON  HOUSK  AND  CEMETERY,  419 

Showing  the  Spot  where  General  Sheridan  is  Buried. 

PORTRAITS. 

GENERAL  PHILIP  H.  SHERIDAN,  .  Frontispiece. 

THE  SHERIDAN  FAMILY  AT  NONQUIT  IN  1887,  .  Opposite  page     16 

General  Sheridan,  Mrs.  General  Sheridan,  Irene,  "  Little   Phil,"  Louise,  Mary,  Colonel 
M.  V.  Sheridan,  Mrs.  Colonel  M.  V.  Sheridan. 

MRS.  IRENE  M.  SHERIDAN,  Opposite  page     17 

Wife  of  General  P.  H.  Sheridan  :  Daughter  of  General  D.  H.  Rucker,  United  States  Army. 

MRS.  JOHN  SHERIDAN,  THE  GENERAL'S  MOTHER,  17 

JOHN  SHERIDAN,  THE  GENERAL'S  FATHER, 
PHILIP  H.  SHERIDAN,  . 

Brevet  Second  Lieutenant,  after  Graduation. 

MRS.  McP.  BONSAL,  201 

Formerly  Miss  Wright,  upon  whose  Information  Sheridan  Fought  the  Battle  of  Winchester. 

UNION. 
GENERAL  GORDON  GRANGER,    .  .  .      47 

A  Distinguished  Officer,  who  Preceded  Sheridan  in  Command  of  the  Second  Michigan  Cavalry. 

PRESIDENT  LINCOLN,  50 

GENERAL  R.  A.  ALGER,  OF  MICHIGAN,  .  .       59 

One  of  the  Heroes  of  the  Booneville  Fight,  Later  Governor  of  Michigan. 

GENERAL  B.  R.  GRIERSON,  .  69 

A  Well-known  Cavalry  Leader  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 

GENERAL  U.  S.  GRANT,      .  .  -79 

GENERAL  GEORGE  STONEMAN,    ...  93 

A  Distinguished  Cavalry  Leader,  and  Recently  Governor  of  California. 

GENERAL  JOHN  BUFORD,  .  -93 

A  Dashing  Union  Cavalryman. 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


GENERAL  WESLEY  MERRITT,     ...  .     in 

One  of  Sheridan's  Distinguished  Generals. 

GENERAL  H.  JUDSON  KILPATRICK,  .  145 

Minister  to  Chili  after  the  War. 

GENERAL  GEORGE  A.  CUSTER,  ......     149 

One  of  Sheridan's  Troopers,  and  after  the  War  a  Famous  Indian  Fighter,  Killed  at 
Rosebud,  Dakota,  in  1876. 

SHERIDAN  AND  His  GENERALS,       ......  154 

General  H,  E.  Davies,  General  D.  McM.  Gregg,  General  Wesley  Merritt,  General  A.  T.  A. 
Torbett,  General}.  H.Wilson,  General  George  A.  Custer. 

GENERAL  A.  T.  A.  TORBETT,  161 

Sheridan's  Chief  of  Staff  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley. 

MAJOR-GENERAL  ALFRED  PLEASONTON,    .  .  166 

The  First  Chief  of  Cavalry  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 

GENERAL  GEORGE  CROOK,    ...  .166 

A  Famous  Cavalry  Leader  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 

GENERAL  AUGUST  V.  KAUTZ,       .  .     .  175 

A  Distinguished  German-American  Officer  —  Commander  of  the  Cavalry  of  the  Army  of 
the  James,  under  Sheridan. 

GENERAL  DAVID  McM.  GREGG,       .  .  .  .  .  .179 

A  Famous  Division  Commander  under  Sheridan. 

GENERAL  ALFRED  N.  DUFFIE,        ....  181 

A  Distinguished  French  Cavalry  Officer  who  Performed  Gallant  Service  with  the 
Union  Army. 

COLONEL  ULRIC  DAHLGREN,   .     .     .     .     .          .216 

Son  of  Admiral  John  A.  Dahlgren,  Killed  March  3,  1864. 
GENERAL  H.  E.  DAVIES,  ....  .     216 

One  of  Sheridan's  Famous  Division  Commanders. 

GENERAL  EBEN  J.  FARNSWORTH,     .....  223 

A  Daring  Cavalry  Officer,  Killed  at  Gettysburg. 

GENERAL  JAMES  H.  WILSON,    .  .  .  .  .  .-  239 

One  of  Sheridan's  Famous  Generals.    He  Conducted  the   last  great  Raid,  in  which 
Jefferson  Davis  was  Captured. 

GENERAL  W.  W.  AVERILL,  ......          256 

A  Famous  Cavalry  General  under  Stoneman,  Pleasonton,  and  Sheridan. 

GENERAL  THOMAS  C.  DEVEN,          ......          263 

The  Gallant  Commander  of  the  Second  Brigade,  First  Division,  Sheridan's  Cavalry  Corps. 

GENERAL  GEORGE  D.  BAYARD,      .     .     .     .     .     .  277 

One  of  the  Youngest  Generals  in  the  Army.     Killed  at  Fredericksburg-,  December  13,  1862. 


16  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

GENERAL  J.  IRVIN  GREGG,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .          293 

A  Distinguished  Brigade  Commander  in  Sheridan's  Corps. 

GENERAL  WILLIAM  T.  SHERMAN,         .     V""?-  ....     342 

Sheridan's  Predecessor  as  General  of  the  Army,  Hero  of  the  March  to  the  Sea,  and  One  of 
the  Three  Great  Captains  under  whom  the  War  was  Brought  to  a  Successful  Close. 

PHILIP  HENRY  SHERIDAN,         .......     399 

From  a  Photograph  later  than  that  from  which  the  Frontispiece  was  taken. 

.  CONFEDERATES. 
GENERAL  J.  R.  CHALMERS,  OF  MISSISSIPPI,  .  .  .  .  -55 

Sheridan's  Antagonist  at  Booneville,  Member  of  Congress  from  Mississippi  after  the  War. 

GENERAL  J.  B.  GORDON,  GOVERNOR  OF  GEORGIA,    ...     62 

A  Distinguished  Cavalryman,  who  Fought  against  Sheridan  at  Cedar  Creek. 

GENERAL  FITZHUGH  LEE,  GOVERNOR  OF  VIRGINIA,  .  .  .62 

One  of  the  Famous  Confederate  Cavalrymen  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia. 

GENERAL  JOSEPH  A.  WHEELER,      .  .  .  .  .  .119 

Now  a  Member  of  the  National  House  of  Representatives  from  Alabama. 

GENERAL  N.  B.  FORREST,          .  .  .  .  .  .  .122 

A  Famous  Cavalry  Leader  in  the  Southwest. 

GENERAL  J.  E.  B.  STUART,  ......  122 

The  Most  Famous  Cavalry  Leader  of  the  Confederate  Army,  Killed  at  Yellow  Tavern. 

COLONEL  JOHN  A.  MOSEBY,       .  .  .  .  .  .  .141 

A  Famous  Confederate  Partisan  Leader,  Consul  to  Hong  Kong  during  President 
Grant's  Administration. 

COLONEL  HARRY  GILMORE,  ......  184 

A  Confederate  Partisan  from  Maryland. 

GENERAL  W.  H.  H.  ROSSER,   .......     184 

Pitted  against  Sheridan  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  in  1864. 

GENERAL  JUBAL  EARLY,   .......    231 

Sheridan's  Antagonist  at  Winchester. 

GENERAL  JOHN  B.  IMBODEN,      .  .....     256 

A  Distinguished  .Confederate  General,  of  Virginia. 

A  CONFEDERATE  CAVALRYMAN  —  ORNAMENTAL  PIECE,  .•          .          304 

GENERAL  WADE  HAMPTON,       .  .  .  .  .  .  .     311 

A  Famous  Confederate  Cavalry  Officer.     Since  the  War  a  United  States  Senator 
from  South  Carolina. 


"fl 


MRS.  IRENE  M.   SHERIDAN, 


WIFE  OF  GEN.  P.  H.  SHERIDAN  ;   DAUGHTER  OF  GEN.  D.  H.  RUCKER,  U.  S.  A. 


CHAPTER  I. 


SHERIDAN  AS  A  GENERAL. 

GRANT'S  ESTIMATE   OF   SHERIDAN  —  HIS   FIRST   IMPRESSIONS   OF    THE   GREAT 

CAVALRYMAN  —  HIS  QUALITIES  AS  A  COMMANDER  —  HIS  SECOND  MEETING 
WITH  GRANT — SHERIDAN'S  PLACE  IN  HISTORY  —  CLOSING  SCENES  OF  THE 
REBELLION. 

"  SHERIDAN'S 
pursuit  of  Lee 
was  perfect  in  its 
generalship  and 
energy."  Gene- 
ral Grantpaid  this 
fitting  tribute  to 
the  soldier  whose 
brilliant  career 
these  pages  will 
record.  Then  the 
mighty  man  of 
war  added:  uAs 
a  soldier,  as  a 
commander  of 
troops,  as  a  man 
capable  of  doing 
all  that  ispossible 
with  any  number 
of  men,  there  is 
no  man  living 
greater  than  Sher- 
idan. He  belongs  to  the  very  first  rank  of  soldiers,  not  only  of  our  coun- 
try, but  of  the  world.  I  rank  Sheridan  with  Napoleon  and  Frederick 
and  the  great  commanders  in  history.  No  man  ever  had  such  a  faculty 
of  finding  out  things  as  Sheridan,  or  of  knowing  all  about  the  enemy. 
He  was  always  the  best  informed  man  in  his  command  as  to  the  enemy. 
2 


MRS.  JOHN  SHERIDAN, 

THE    GENERAL'S   MOTHER. 


18  THE  LIFE  OF 

Then  he  had  that  magnetic  quality  of  swaying  men  which  I  wish  I 
had  —  a  rare  quality  in  a  general.  I  don't  think  any  one  can  give 
Sheridan  too  high  praise." 

It  took  the  humble  Ohio  lad  more  than  four  years,  in  the  white  heat 
of  war,  to  make  these  facts  clear  to  his  countrymen  and  the  authorities 
in  control  of  the  government  and  its  armies.  He  was  not  a  typical  hero 
in  appearance.  His  size  was  against  him.  Restless,  full  of  the  com- 
bative quality,  not  politic  in  language,  somewhat  reticent,  half  stub- 
born, and  fond  of  hazardous  enterprises,  he  was  the  embodiment  of 
heroism,  dash,  and  impulse.  Then  he  had  the  power  of  inspiring  all 
about  him,  and  imparting  to  others  the  very  confidence  he  felt  himself. 
Yet  he  seemingly  commanded  only  those  qualities  which  show  the 
wide  difference  between  the  habitual  impulses  of  the  brilliant  corps 
commander,  and  the  cool  thinking  of  a  chief  in  the  art,  as  well  as  in 
the  onset,  of  war.  At  the  very  outset  of  his  career,  just  after  he  was 
appointed  colonel  of  cavalry,  and  while  on  the  way  with  his  regiment 
to  join  General  Gordon  Granger,  he  met  the  future  commander  of  the 
armies.  But  the  impression  he  created  on  that  occasion  was  not  a 
favorable  one.  In  fact,  Grant  tells  us  that  it  was  bad,  and  relates  the 
incident  in  these  words  : 

"  We  met  at  a  railway  station.  I  had  never  seen  Sheridan  but  once 
before.  He  was  then  commissary  at  Halleck's  headquarters  during 
the  march  toward  Corinth.  Although  he  belonged  to  the  Fourth  In- 
fantry, my  old  regiment,  I  had  no  acquaintance  with  him,  for  he  grad- 
uated ten  years  after  I  had  left  West  Point.  I  knew  I  had  sent  a  regi- 
ment of  cavalry  to  join  Granger,  but  I  had  not  indicated  the  Second 
Michigan,  of  which  Sheridan  had  recently  been  made  the  colonel.  I 
really  did  not  wish  that  regiment  to  leave.  As  we  met  for  the  second 
time  in  our  lives,  I  spoke  to  him  about  his  going.  He  said  he  would 
rather  go  than  stay,  or  some  similar  brusque  and  rough  remark  that 
annoyed  me.  I  don't  think  he  could  have  said  anything  that  would 
have  made  a  worse  impression  upon  me.  But  I  subsequently  watched 
his  career  and  saw  how  much  there  was  in  him.  When  I  came  East 
and  took  command,  I  looked  around  for  a  cavalry  commander.  While 
standing  in  front  of  the  White  House  talking  to  Mr.  Lincoln  and 
General  Halleck,  I  said  I  wanted  the  best  man  I  could  find  for  a  cav- 
alry commander.  '  Then '  said  Halleck,  '  why  not  take  Phil  Sheri- 
dan?' 'Well,'  I  said,  'I  was  going  to  say  Phil  Sheridan.'  So 
Sheridan  was  sent  for,  and  he  came,  but  very  much  disgusted.  He 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  19 

was  just  about  to  have  a  corps,  and  he  did  not  know  why  we  wanted 
him  East,  whether  it  was  to  discipline  him  or  not." 

The  country  had  not  yet  become  interested  in  Sheridan,  as  Grant 
had.  He  was  still  practically  unknown  outside  the  immediate  army  in 
which  he  served  when  called  from  the  West.  His  great  fight  with 
Cheatham  at  Stone  River,  his  second  struggle  with  the  same  general 
at  Chickamauga,  and  his  good  deeds  at  Missionary  Ridge,  had,  it  is  true, 
attracted  the  attention  of  military  men.  But  he  was  only  at  the  thresh- 
old of  his  fame  when  Grant  sent  him  across  the  Rapidan  as  his 
chief  of  cavalry  in  1864.  The  troopers  had  now  become  a  positive 
power  in  army  operations,  yet  their  new  leader  was  only  considered  a 
11  rough  rider  "  by  the  country,  capable  of  great  things  with  a  small 
force  and  rapid  movement.  The  series  of  brilliant  cavalry  operations, 
which  led  to  his  transfer  to  the  Shenandoah  was  all  lost  to  the  public 
ear,  in  the  din  of  the  greater  army  movements  that  were  going  on  around 
him.  He  was  sent  to  the  valley  of  Virginia  by  an  accident,  as  a 
cavalryman,  not  as  a  great  commander ;  but  his  deeds  soon  carried 
him  to  supreme  command,  and  he  fought  several  great  battles.  Yet 
he  did  not  reach  the  summit  of  his  fame  until  the  final  act  which 
destroyed  Lee's  army.  In  the  closing  hours  of  the  Rebellion,  Sheridan 
became  the  vivid  omen  of  defeat  to  the  broken  soldier  in  gray.  Grant 
called  him  from  the  Shenandoah  ;  and  when  he  reached  him  on  the 
last  days  of  February,  1865,  with  his  ten  thousand  troopers,  the  lines 
were  closing  around  the  fated  Confederacy.  Sheridan  became  to 
Grant  what  Murat  was  to  Napoleon.  After  Meade's  forces  crashed 
through  Lee's  lines  at  Petersburg,  and  the  southern  commander  moved 
south  to  join  Johnston,  Sheridan's  great  work  began. 

The  failing  army  against  which  his  firm  and  fateful  operations  were 
now  directed,  was  simply  a  vitalized  desperation.  It  was  at  the  mercy 
of  Time.  It  had  hopes,  but  they  were  only  a  pathetic  disbelief  in  the 
inevitable.  The  swift  stroke  of  the  Federal  cavalry  was  everywhere. 
It  flashed  upon  the  Confederate  flanks,  laughed  past  its  front,  and  then 
it  picked  up  the  stragglers.  It  was  the  materialized  sneer  of  fate  at 
the  hopelessness  of  further  opposition. 

The  lines  were  closing,  and  there  were  gaps  through  which  the 
hoof-beats  of  the  horses  were  heard,  and  the  sabres  of  the  troopers  fell. 
Every  time  they  advanced  farther  and  more  recklessly,  until  the  doomed 
army  knew  that  the  great  cordon  which  was  to  crush  it  was  closing  more 
and  more  tightly  around  it.  The  daring  of  the  Confederates  was 
simply  an  attempt  to  postpone  the  inevitable ;  but  it  was  a  striking 


20  THE  LIFE  OF 

illustration  of  their  discipline,  and  the  confidence  reposed  in  their,  com- 
mander. The  cavalry  had  whirled  through  the  Shenandoah  —  a  cyclone 
of  war  —  and  had  left  a  ruined  country  alid  a  scattered  and  dispirited 
remnant  of  an  army.  It  had  throttled  the  last  hope  at  Five  Forks. 
Sheridan,  the  dashing  cavalry  officer,  the  masterly  leader  of  men  in 
battle,  here  proved  himself  a  perfect  tactician  on  the  field  and  in  the 
face  of  a  fighting  army.  The  whole  of  his  movements  won  from  an 
applauding  world  the  recognition  of  his  powers  as  a  great  commanding 
general.  From  that  point  it  was  little  more  than  a  series  of  running 
skirmishes,  some  of  them  desperate,  all  of  them  evidences  of  Ameri- 
can grit ;  for,  though  sore,  weary,  and  starving,  the  remnants  of  Lee's 
once  great  army  would  sometimes  turn  and  sting  with  terrible  power 
their  relentless  pursuers.  But  Union  troopers  harassed  them  at  every 
turn.  The  infantry  drove  their  already  dejected  forces  into  disorder. 
The  great  cordon  closed  around  them  like  an  immense  barn  door,  and 
the  main  army  swung  on  the  veterans  of  Lee  like  a  host  of  beating 
flails  winnowing  the  grain.  Every  avenue  was  closed  by  the  Federal 
troopers.  They  had  overrun  all  the  roads  of  supplies  and  left  them 
barren.  Wherever  the  Confederacy  looked  expectantly  for  some  new 
path  of  escape  or  succor,  Sheridan  was  there  like  a  whirlwind  of  death 
and  defeat.  Across  fields,  down  highways,  through  by-paths,  and  on 
every  road,  in  the  storm  and  terror  of  Five  Forks,  on  the^road  below 
Appomattox,  this  great  cavalryman  and  wonderful  soldier  was  leading 
the  advance  or  striking  the  flank  of  the  enemy,  with  an  energy  born 
of  the  mighty  power  of  a  great  brain  well  schooled  in  the  best  element 
of  the  art  and  vigor  of  war. 

Finally,  on  a  beautiful  April  morning  in  1865,  as  the  sun  rose 
over  the  hills  and  vales  of  a  region  that  had  never  yet  felt  the  cruel 
footfall  of  war,  Sheridan's  cavalry  swung  into  line  for  the  last  charge. 
The  sound  of  those  horses'  hoofs  on  the  road  beyond  Gordon's  advance 
was  the  final  menace  to  the  expiring  Confederacy. 

The  night  of  the  8th  of  April  closed  upon  a  day  of  hard  work  and 
exciting  events.  By  a  forced  and  rapid  march  Sheridan  had  thrust  his 
cavalry  in  front  of  the  retreating  Confederate  army.  The  night  before 
the  surrender,  Custer  had  enveloped  Appomattox  Station,  capturing  three 
heavily  laden  railway  trains  of  supplies,  twenty-five  pieces  of  artillery, 
200  wagons,  and  many  prisoners.  After  this  stroke  the  cavalrymen 
stood  to  horse  all  night.  The  gray  of  the  morning  was  just  yielding 
to  the  stronger  light  of  full  day  when  they  were  ordered  to  move  for- 
ward. As  they  emerged  from  the  woods  and  advanced  upon  the  plains 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 


21 


THE   LATE   RESIDENCE   OF   SHERIDAN'S  MOTHER. 
SOMERSET,  OHIO. 

[From  a  Recent^  Photograph.] 

beyond,  they  could  see  the  army  of  Lee  cut  off  from  further  retreat. 
It  was  a  sight*  at  once  grand  and  thrilling  when  the  horsemen  moved 
forward  to  the  final  attack.  Gordon  made  an  attempt  to  destroy  the 
line  of  cavalry  which  appeared  with  sabres  glistening  in  the  spring  sun, 
the  trophies  of  war  mingling  with  battle-flags  of  the  Union  commander. 
Behind  Sheridan's  cavalry  long  lines  of  infantry  under  Ord,  Griffin, 
and  Gibbon,  were  waiting  to  gather  the  sheaves  of  war  which  Sheri- 
dan's troopers  had  secured.  The  last  fight  was  a  short  one,  and  the 
white  flag  of  truce  from  Gordon's  headquarters  announced  the  final  sur- 
render. Sheridan  rode  into  the  Confederate  lines  to  receive  the  praises 
of  his  chief  and  the  applause  of  his  country  for  his  brilliant  work.  It 
was  a  fitting  end  to  the  closing  hours  of  the  great  struggle,  that  his 
fame  as  a  soldier  should  be  completed  only  with  the  final  breaking  up, 
which  his  generalship  and  energy  had  done  so  much  to  hasten. 

The  story  of  so  dashing  and  brilliant  a  life  cannot  be  easily  told. 
But  it  is  well  before  taking  up  the  thread  of  his  military  life  in  detail,  to 
observe  the  elements  of  mind  and  character  which  have  combined  to  pro- 
duce a  soldier  whose  fame  has  reached  far  beyond  the  limits  of  his  own 
country,  and  of  whom  Grant  once  said  :  "  No  better  general  ever  lived." 


CHAPTER  II. 


SHERIDAN'S  BOYHOOD  DAYS. 


THE  HUMBLE  HOME  IN  OHIO  —  HIS  FAMILY  AND  EARLY  LIFE  —  TRADITIONS  OF 
THE  COUNTRY-SIDE  CONCERNING  HIM — A  CLERK  IN  THE  COUNTRY  STORE  — 
APPOINTMENT  TO  WEST  POINT — ANECDOTES  OF  SHERIDAN'S  YOUTH  —  HIS 
EARLY  EDUCATION  AND  OPPORTUNITIES. 

IT  is  seldom 
that  the  same  gen- 
eral reveals  great- 
ness alike  on  the 
battle-field  and 
in  the  planning 
of  campaigns. 
Therefore  it  is, 
that  in  the  sharp 
test  of  warfare 
only  one  officer 
steps  forward 
among  the  many 
possessing  all  the 
traits  necessary  to 
the  successful 
conduct  of  war- 
like operations. 
Yet  no  two  great 
JOHN  SHERIDAN,  commanders  have 

THE  GENERAL'S   FATHER.  pOSSCSScd         the 

same  qualifications.  Sheridan  is  not  complete  on  the  same  lines  that 
made  Grant  such  a  mighty  power  in  war.  But  he  held  other  gifts 
of  head  and  spirit  which  Grant  had  not,  and  which  go  very  far 
toward  rounding  up  the  strength  of  resource  between  them.  Sher- 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  23 

idan  has  the  impetuous  quality  that  comes  from  Irish  ancestry. 
Grant  inherited  the  perfect  temper,  self-poise,  resolution,  and  endurance 
of  the  Scotch.  Naturally,  a  wide  difference,  yet  they  had  many  quali- 
ties in  common.  Neither  of  them  was  talkative,  and  in  their  artny  life 
both  may  well  be  called  silent  men  of  the  type  of  whom  Carlyle  says  : 

"The  noble  silent  men,,  scattered  here  and  there,  each  in  his  depart- 
ment, silently  thinking,  silently  working, —  they  are  the  salt  of  the  earth. 
Silence  — the  great  empire  of  silence." 

It  is  not  necessary,  in  seeking  the  sources  of  Sheridan's  power,  to 
go  back  farther  than  his  immediate  family.  His  father  came  to  this 
country  shortly  before  Philip  was  born,  and  settled  for  a  time  in 
Albany,  N.  Y.  He  was  a  laborer  and  contractor,  according  to  his 
varying  fortunes.  Early  in  life  he  married  Mary  Maigh,  a  fine  speci- 
men of  Irish  womanhood,  who  was  born  in  the  county  of  Cavan  in 
1801.  She  bore  him  six  children  :  Patrick  H.,  Philip  H.,  Michael  V., 
John,  Mary,  and  Rosa.  Patrick,  the  oldest  child,  was. born  in  Ire- 
land, also  a  daughter,  who  died  at  sea.  The  family  came  to  Quebec, 
Canada,  in  1829,  thence  to  St.  John,  New  Brunswick,  from  there  to 
Portland,  Me.,  arriving  in  Albany,  N.  Y.,  in  1830.  Remaining  in 
Albany  several  years,  they  moved  to  Somerset,  Ohio.  Next  to  the 
daughter  who  died  at  sea  came  the  general ;  then  Mary,  who  married 
Mr.  John  Wilson,  and  died  in  1868  ;  then  John  L.,  born  in  1837,  f°l~ 
lowed  by  Colonel  M.  V.  Sheridan,  U.  S.  A.,  born  in  1840.  This  em- 
braces the  entire  family.  Mrs.  Sheridan  had  relatives  living  near  Som- 
erset ;  and  desiring  to  be  near  her  kindred,  the  elder  Sheridan  decided 
to  leave  Albany  for  the  West.  When  Philip,  who  was  born  at  Albany, 
March  6,  1831,  was  yet  a  child  in  arms,  the  family  settled  in  the  queer 
little  Ohio  village,  where  they  have  ever  since  lived.  John  Sheridan 
became  a  contractor  on  the  Maysville  turnpike,  running  towards 
Jonesville. 

This  region  was  then  the  far  West.  The  vast  domain  beyond  the 
Alleghanies.  was  only  being  opened  up  to  settlement.  Therefore,  the 
early  surroundings  of  the  Sheridan  family  were  rude.  But  the  primi- 
tive conditions  of  the  new  country,  forbidding  as  they  were,  brought 
out  the  best  energies  of  the  young  who  grew  up  in  it. 

John  Sheridan  was  not  as  prosperous  as  many  of  his  neighbors  ;  yet, 
by  industry  and  perseverance,  he  was  able  to  bring  his  family  up  with 
most  of  the  advantages  of  the  country-side. 

It  is  a  village  tradition  that  Mrs.  Sheridan  was,  in  the  days  of  their 


24  THE  LIFE  OF 

early  struggle,  a  remarkable  woman.  She  brought  up  her  children 
carefully,  and  taught  them  habits  of  industry.  Her  boys  are  said  to 
have  been  as  well  behaved  and  as  neatly  dressed  as  any  of  the  children 
in  the  neighborhood.  She  also  schooled  them  in  their  first  lessons,  and 
imparted  to  them  much  of  her  own  spirit  and  many  of  her  sterling 
qualities. 

It  has  been  written  that  men  inherit  their  strongest  qualities  of  mind 
and  heart  from  their  mothers.  Sheridan  is  no  exception  to  this  rule. 

Of  the  four  boys  of  John  Sheridan,  Patrick  H.  was  regarded  as  the 
brightest  and  the  most  likely  to  make  his  mark  in  the  world.  It  is 
stated  by  those  who  were  boys  and  girls  when  Phil  Sheridan  was  a  lad, 
that  it  was  his  father's  intention  that  Patrick,  and  not  Philip,  should 
be  sent  to  West  Point.  All  the  Sheridan  boys  were  brought  up  to  be 
industrious.  Philip  was,  in  early  life,  a  clerk  in  the  country  stores. 
Michael,  now  an  assistant  adjutant-general  on  his  brother's  staff,  and 
John,  who  never  reached  a  higher  place  in  the  army  than  that  of  a 
private,  worked  in  the  pfinting-office  of  the  town. 

Jl  is  an  odd  experience  to  find  one's  self  in  a  country  store  in  a 
remote  village,  aside  from  the  main  lines  of  travel,  and  to  hear  from 
the  clerk,  between  the  intervals  of  getting  tape  and  buttons,  hardware 
and  groceries,  the  early  history  of  the  General  of  the  Army,  who  often 
slept  with  him  beneath  the  counter.  It  is  a  favorite  pastime  for  the  jus- 
tice and  the  preacher,  the  shoemaker  and  the  attorney,  to  gather  in 
Fink  &  Dittoe's  establishment,  and  listen  to  Captain  Greiner  and  Mr. 
Fink  recall  their  adventures  with  Phil  Sheridan  when  they  were  boys 
together.  But  few  of  the  companions  of  Sheridan's  boyhood  live  in 
Somerset  now.  They,  like  him,  have  drifted  into  the  outer  currents 
of  life,  and  are  scattered  over  the  country.  Those  who  have  re- 
mained find  pleasure  in  telling  stories  of  the  boy,  who,  by  dint  of  those 
very  qualities  that  made  him  a  leader  of  his  companions  in  youth,  won 
his  way  to  the  head  of  the  army.  The  boys  who  fought  and  played 
with  him  have  not  achieved  distinction.  The  few  of  them  who  have 
remained  in  the  town  have  stagnated  there.  Captain  Greiner,  the  vil- 
lage dentist,  who  fought  in  the  war ;  Martin  Scott,  a  genial  old  man, 
who  keeps  another  store  over  the  way  ;  Brashton,  a  lawyer  of  advanced 
years,  and  Henry  Talbot,  give  many  reminiscences  of  Phil  Sheridan,  as 
they  still  call  him.  The  little  village  where  he  was  brought  up  has 
fallen  behind  in  the  rapid  growth  of  the  country  all  around  it.  Years 
ago  it  was  the  county-seat,  made  some  pretence  of  bustle  and  business, 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN. 


HOME   OF   SHERIDAN'S  BOYHOOD,  SOMERSET,   OHIO. 

{From  a  Recent  Photograph.} 

and  promised  to  grow  into  a  city.  But  as  railroads  were  built,  they 
passed  it  on  one  side  on  their  way  to  the  mines  ;  the  county  court 
was  held  elsewhere ;  the  young  men  pushed  into  more  active  fields  ; 
and  Somerset  became  that  rare  phenomenon  in  the  West,  a  town  which 
lost  population  instead  of  gaining  it.  Quiet  and  dull,  with  few  young 
people  to  be  seen,  it  has  far  less  life  in  its  central  square  than  have 
most  other  towns  of  its  size. 

The  open  space  in  the  middle  of  the  village  is  surrounded  by  stores 
arid  offices.  From  it  run  four  roads,  along  which  houses  are  scattered 
for  a  short  distance,  and  then  comes  open  country.  About  fourteen 
hundred  people  are  grouped  in  this  settlement — fewer  than  lived  here 


26  THE  LIFE  OF 

thirty  or  more  years  ago,  when  Phil  Sheridan,  a  lively  boy,  romped 
and  ran  through  its  open  streets. 

Only  a  few  people  can  recall  much  of  the  early  history  of  the  man 
who  has  now  reached  such  an  eminence.  "Mike"  Sheridan,  as  the 
village  people  call  him,  is  better  known,  perhaps,  than  his  brother.  A 
half  mile  or  so  beyond  the  town,  Mrs.  Sheridan  lived  in  a  quiet, 
unpretending  house,  such  as  one  finds  in  any  country  village.  The  old 
lady,  when  the  writer,  not  long  since,  called  upon  her,  had  passed 
more  than  fourscore  years,  and  still  retained  her  faculties  and  strength. 
Her  boys  "Phil"  and  "Mike"  were  the  pride  of  her  life;  and 
be  it  said  to  their  credit,  in  their  prosperity  they  never  forgot  the 
plain,  warm-hearted,  good  mother,  from  whom  they  inherited  many 
of  their  best  qualities.  Chance  threw  the  writer  into  her  company. 
Her  strong  features  lighted  up,  and  her  eyes  sparkled  with  pleasure, 
when  the  name  of  the  great  general,  her  son,  was  spoken. 

"He  was  always  a  fine  lad  and  good  to  his  mother.  I  don't  -want 
to  be  foolishly  proud  about  him,  but  he's  been  a  good  son  to  me.  He 
was  always  in  mischief,  and  always  used  to  be  teaching  the  boys  to  be 
soldiers  when  he  was  younger  than  any  of  them.  But  he  would  never 
do  anything  mean.  He  never  lets  a  year  go  round  that  he  doesn't 
come  to  see  me  ;  and  he's  very  kind." 

As  may  be  imagined,  Sheridan's  early  educational  advantages  were 
few.  His  instructor  was  a  unique  character,  named  McNally.  His 
hot  temper  displayed  itself  in  bursts  of  passion,  which  alternated  with 
the  most  effusive  kindness  towards  his  pupils.  At  one  hour  he  would 
thrash  and  scold  till  arm  and  tongue  were  weary  ;  at  another  he  would 
promise  the  boys  a  holiday,  and  joke  with  them  as  if  he  were  a  boy 
himself.  Toward  Sheridan  especially,  he  was  always  either  exceed- 
ingly gracious  or  very  severe.  He  had  a  kindly  feeling  for  the  little 
Irish  boy  who  was  always  playing  tricks  on  the  other  lads.  But  the 
teacher  had  another  favorite,  a  boy  named  Home.  One  day  Sheridan 
and  Home  quarreled,  and  Home  rushed  into  the  school-house  with  his 
nose  bleeding,  wailing  his  distress  to  the  master.  McNally  was  furious. 
He  seized  a  long  stick  and  sallied  out  in  search  of  Sheridan.  It  was 
recess  time,  and  the  young  conqueror  was  sitting  on  a  rail  fence,  watch- 
ing the  school-house,  knowing  that  there  were  breakers  ahead.  The 
appearance  of  the  teacher  was  warning  enough.  Sheridan  ran  away 
as  fast  as  his  little  legs  could  carry  him. 

"Come  back  here,  you  little  rascal!"  shouted  McNally,  starting 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  27 

in  pursuit.  The  chase  led  up  the  middle  of  the  main  village  street, 
and  everybody  rushed  out  to  see  it.  The  pedagogue  ran,  his  flying 
coat-tails  and  long  hair  tossed  in  the  wind,  shaking  his  stick,  and  mak- 
ing the  most  terrible  threats.  The  boy's  strength  began  to  fail ;  the 
master  was  gaining  ;  escape  seemed  impossible.  Just  then  the  friendly 
door  of  a  tin-shop  appeared  wide  open.  The  tinsmith,  Sam  Cassell, 
was  a  great  friend  of  Phil's,  and  to  him  the  boy  rushed. 

"Hide  me,  Sam,"  he  begged.  There  was  not  a  second  to  lose. 
The  old  man  was  at  work  on  a  big  copper  kettle.  Quick  as  a  flash  he 
clapped  the  kettle  over  the  boy,  and  when  the  teacher  arrived  the  tin- 
smith was  calmly  hammering  away  at  a  rivet,  within  two  inches  of  the 
fugitive's  head. 

"  Where's  that  boy  who  ran  in  here?  "  panted  McNally. 

"  I  don't  know.     He  went  out  back  somewhere,"  responded  Cassell. 

The  teacher  looked  and  looked  ;  but  Sheridan  was  not  to  be  found, 
and  his  baffled  pursuer  returned  to  the  school-house.  An  hour  later 
little  Phil  came  back  also,  well  knowing  that  McNally's  anger  would  be 
cooled.  The  teacher  let  the  boy  walk  to  his  desk,  and  never  said  a 
word  about  the  fight  or  chase. 

Phil  Sheridan  was,  from  his  earliest  boyhood,  a  lover  of  soldiers. 
His  eye  danced  and  his  heart  beat  whenever  there  was  a  drill  of  the 
village  militia  company.  Every  summer  he  would  get  a  dozen  of  his 
school-mates,  and  persuade  them  that  it  was  the  best  fun  in  the  world 
to  play  soldier.  His  friend  Cassell  would  let  him  have  a  sword  of  the 
sharpest  and  brightest  tin,  and,  of  course,  Phil  was  always  captain. 
But  there  would  always  be  some  mutinous  boy  who  wanted  to  be 
captain,  too,  and  Sheridan's  company  usually  broke  up  in  confusion. 

A  hundred  other  stories  like  this  are  told  in  the  town  where  he  grew 
up,  but  it  would  take  a  volume  to  record  the  anecdotes  of  his  boy- 
hood days.  His  fame  is  the  pride  of  the  village,  and  the  casual 
visitor  who  chances  to  stop  at  Somerset  is  never  allowed  to  leave  with- 
out due  notice  of  the  fact  that  this  little  village  has  raised  a  great  soldier 
for  the  army.  These  humble  people  love  to  tell  that  one  of  the  traits 
of  this  boy,  besides  his  love  of  fun  and  soldiering,  was  that  he  never 
knew  fear.  He  was  always  ready  to  stand  his  ground  against  any  odds. 
The  school-master  who  taught  him  his  earliest  lessons  has  long  since 
passed  away  ;  but  his  school-mates  say  that  Phil  Sheridan  never  studied 
in  earnest  until  he  thought  he  had  a  chance  to  go  to  West  Point. 


28  GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

Then  he  devoted  all  his  energies  to  cramming  for  his  examination.  He 
got  his  appointment  in  1849,  and  by  dint  of  his  friends'  aid,  passed  the 
ordeal,  and  was  admitted  to  the  military  academy.  For  two  years  the 
village  lost  sight  of  him,  and  then  he  came  home  on  his  first  leave  of 
absence.  He  brought  two  companions  with  him,  the  now  famous  Gen- 
eral Crook,  and  Colonel  Nugent,  who  afterwards  made  something  of  a 
mark  in  the  army.  These  three  cadets  were  the  lions  of  the  town, 
and  picnics,  rides,  and  rural  frolics  filled  the  summer. 

This  first  summer  that  Sheridan  passed  at  home  after  his  entrance 
to  West  Point  is  often  spoken  of  by  his  neighbors.  He  closed  his 
round  of  pleasures  by  thrashing  a  lawyer  named  Henessey,  twice  as 
large  as  himself,  who  had  made  some  idle  remark  about  his  family. 
The  story  of  this  fight  is  about  the  last  reminiscence  these  plain  people 
give  of  the  poor  boy  who  used  to  live  amongst  them,  but  who  is  now 
General  of  the  Army.  He  was  graduated  in  the  class  of  1853,  and 
immediately  appointed  a  brevet  second  lieutenant  in  the  First  In- 
fantry. Almost  all  they  knew  of  him  in  recent  years  was  that,  until 
her  recent  demise,  he  came  now  and  then  to  see  his  mother,  and  in 
the  glamor  of  his  official  life  had  not  forgotten  the  homely  days  of 
his  youth. 


CHAPTER  III. 


WEST  POINT  AND  THE  ARMY. 

HIS  LIFE  AT  THE  MILITARY  ACADEMY  ON  THE  HUDSON  —  EARLY  EXPERIENCES 
IN  THE  ARMY  AFTER  GRADUATION — INTERESTING  STORIES  OF  FRONTIER 
LIFE  —  OUTBREAK  OF  THE  REBELLION  —  HIS  FIRST  SERVICE  IN  WAR  —  NOT 
A  VERY  BRILLIANT  BEGINNING. 

THE  boy,  who  at  ten 
years  of  age  had  whipped 
every  one  of  his  size  and 
weight  in  the  town  of  Som- 
erset, and  received  the  sur- 
render of  his  school-mas- 
ter, whom  with  the  aid  of 
'his  dog,  he  had  ignomin- 
iously  driven  up  a  tree, 
was  a  fitting  candidate,  a 
few  years  later,  for  a  West 
Point  cadetship. 

It  was  in  the  year  1847, 
while  employed  as  a  clerk 
in  the  dry  goods  store  of 
Fink  &  Dittoe  at  Somerset, 
that  young  Sheridan  had 
his  ambition  fired  with  a 
desire  to  enter  the  military 
academy.  There  was  a 
vacant  cadetship  at  the  dis- 
posal of  General  Ritchie,  then  a  representative  in  Congress  from  the 
district  in  which  Somerset  was  included.  The  ambitious  boy  made 
his  application  direct,  writing  and  signing  the  letter  himself  and  having 
no  endorsements  attached. 

The  congressman  made  the  appointment,  and  the  nominee  went 


PHILIP  H.  SHERIDAN. 

BREVET  SECOND   LIEUTENANT,  AFTER  GRADUATION. 


?o  THE  LIFE  OF 

earnestly  and  industriously  to  work  supplying  the  deficiencies  of  a 
limited  education.  He  placed  himself  under  the  tuition  of  a  Mr. 
Clark,  a  fine  mathematician  and  excellent  "teacher.  Pupil  and  teacher 
worked  hard,  and  at  the  end  of  three  months  young  Sheridan  was 
ready  for  his  examination.  He  left  Somerset  for  West  Point  and  was 
admitted  to  the  academy  in  the  spring  of  1848. 

No  more  peculiar  looking  lad  had  ever  been  admitted.  He  is, 
to-day,  one  of  the  most  notable  appearing  of  men,  when  one  associates 
with  so  commanding  a  military  reputation,  the  physique  which  is  com- 
monly presumed  to  be  part  of  a  soldier's  qualifications.  On  horseback 
and  in  battle,  General  Sheridan  is  the  very  embodiment  of  conflict. 
He  is  the  apotheosis  in  his  personality  of  both  brain  and  blow  ;  of  in- 
tellect and  action  ;  of  swift  conception  and  daring  execution.  Some 
one  who  has  known  him  well  declares  that  in  the  field  "  Sheridan  was 
a  terribly  ugly  man."  He  was  profanely  bitter  in  cases  of  unneeded 
delay  or  failure:  not  sparing  himself,  he  never  spared  others.  u  He 
never  raved  or  frothed  at  the  mouth,  but  he  was  short,  sharp,  hot, 
peppery,  crusty,  sarcastic,  vehement,  and  full  of  fight  even  with  his  own 
staff.  Excuses  were  in  vain.  When  his  manoeuvres  were  successful 
he  never  stopped  to  receive  praise  ;  he  accepted  it  as  perfectly  natural ; 
but  when  anything  went  wrong  he  was  perfectly  savage." 

The  boy  was  father  to  the  man  :  the  West  Point  cadet  proved  him- 
self the  forerunner  of  the  mature  soldier.  His  appearance  at  the  acad- 
emy excited  both  curiosity  and  amusement,  and  his  peculiar  build  made 
him  the  butt  of  his  class,  until  it  became  painfully  evident  to  those  who 
practiced  their  jokes  that  he  was  a  dangerous  subject  to  jest  with. 
General  Hascall,  one  of  his  classmates,  and  now  resident  of  .Indian- 
apolis, says  : 

"  He  was  one  of  the  most  peculiarly  built  boys  I  ever  saw.  His 
chest  was  very  large  and  full,  his  legs  short  and  small,  and  his  arms  so 
phenomenally  long  that  his  hands  reached  far  below  his  knees  as  he 
walked.  His  physical  peculiarities  were  so  marked  before  he  finally 
and  fully  developed  that  he  came  very  near  being  rejected  by  the 
examining  board  on  that  account." 

It  was  those  long  arms  of  his  that  enabled  Sheridan  to  become  one 
of  the  finest  swordsmen  of  his  age.  His  knowledge  of  horses  stood 
him  in  excellent  stead,  and  his  audacious  courage  in  handling  and  rid- 
ing them  soon  made  him  a  leader  in  the  riding  school.  On  horseback 
Sheridan  looks  to  be  a  large  man.  On  his  feet,  he  is  indeed  peculiar. 
In  these  later  and  famous  days,  he  excites  as  much  comment  as  did 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  31 

his  rustic,  ungainly  appearance  at  the  military  academy  forty  years 
since.  At  the  headquarters  of  the  army,  or  elsewhere  in  Washington, 
Sheridan,  unless  met  face  to  face,  would  surprise  a  stranger  almost  to 
incredulity  by  his  appearance.  He  is  careless  of  dress,  and  like  most 
American  officers,  especially  in  the  regular  army,  gets  as  far  away  from 
uniform  when  off  duty  as  is  possible.  His  short  figure  has  grown 
very  rotund  with  increasing  years  and  comparative  ease.  Seen  by  a 
correspondent  a  short  time  before  his  serious  sickness,  he  was  thus 
described : 

u  He  wore  upon  the  back  of  his  round,  bullet  head  a  very  slim, 
high,  old-fashioned  silk  hat  of  a  style  that  was  popular  at  the  close  of 
the  Civil  War.  It  was  about  two  sizes  too  small.  His  short,  iron 
gray  hair  stood  out  from  under  the  rim  of  his  hat  at  nearly  right  angles 
with  it.  His  red,  weather-beaten  face  did  not  show  any  new  lines  of 
advancing  age,  but  his  grizzly,  iron-gray  mustache  and  imperial  were 
whitening  very  fast.  He  wore  a  short,  light,  yellow-gray  overcoat 
which  had  only  two  buttons  on  it,  and  they  were  nearly  ready  to  fly  off 
from  the  undue  strain  of  Sheridan's  round  figure.  The  coat  like  the 
hat,  appeared  to  have  been  long  outgrown.  The  trousers  were  a  gray 
plaid  and  fitted  very  snugly  to  the  general's  fat  legs.  His  boots  were 
thick  soled  and  unblacked.  He  wore  no  gloves.  The  side  and  rear 
views  of  the  general  suggested  a  low  comedy  man  who  had  walked  off 
the  stage  all  made  up  for  a  funny  part ;  but  when  you  came  to  look  at 
the  general  square  in  the  face,  its  stern,  solemn,  composed  lines  were 
enough  to  make  one  forget  his  grotesque  figure  and  careless  dress." 

.Odet  Sheridan  at  his  studies  and  books  was  more  inapt  and  dull 
than  at  his  drill  and  exercises,  yet  that  he  was  a  poor  scholar  is  not 
at  all  a  correct  statement.  The  academic  curriculum  was  even  then 
too  severe  to  permit  a  dullard  or  dunce  to  graduate  successfully.  Sheri- 
dan was  simply  an  average  scholar,  and  a  superior  soldier-cadet.  He 
was  a  sturdy,  self-respecting  "  pleb,  "  and  did  not  allow  himself  to  be 
bullied  by  the  cadets,  chiefly  from  the  slave-holding  states  and  the 
cities  of  the  North,  who  presumed  to  set  up  in  business  as  the  aristo- 
crats of  the  academy.  At  that  period  the  northern  cadet  who  did  not 
succumb  to  the  social  and  political  blandishments  which  were  under 
the  control  of  pro-slavery  influences  that  dominated  the  country  and  all 
its  administrative  forces,  had  indeed  a  rocky  path  to  climb,  and  found 
his  way  to  even  legitimate  advancement  a  severe  one.  Young  Sheri- 
dan did  not  quarrel  with  the  prevailing  tone  of  the  period,  it  is  true, 
but  found  himself  socially  ignored  by  the  cadets  more  favored  in  person 


^2  THE  LIFE  OF 

and  influence.  He  was  too  self  respecting  to  care  for  this,  though 
quick  to  resent  any  presumption  on  the  part  of  his  fellow-cadets.  It 
was  an  incident  of  this  sort  that  set  him  back  a  year  in  his  graduation. 

On  one  occasion,  about  the  middle  of  his  cadetship,  the  officer  of 
the  day  was  Captain  Terrell,  a  somewhat  petty  martinet  and  diciplina- 
rian,  who  sought  to  gain  favor  and  promotion  by  a  system  of  small 
rigorousness.  Sheridan  was  a  few  minutes  late  at  reveille  and  Terrell 
reported  him  for  this  fault.  As  a  consequence  the  cadet  was  repri- 
manded. Sheridan  was  enraged  at  this,  and  not  being  at  all  lacking 
in  spirit,  caught  Terrell  next  day  off  duty  and  attempted  at  once  to  give 
him  a  pummelling  for  what  he  considered  an  unwarranted  indignity. 
The  sturdy  young  fellow  got  in  his  work  on  the  older  martinet,  and 
though  he  was  somewhat  worsted  in  the  encounter,  remained  satisfied 
with  the  humiliation  he  inflicted  on  Terrell  by  attacking  him  so  unceri- 
moniously,  even  though  it  brought  on  him  the  severe  punishment  of  a 
year's  suspension.  In  consequence  of  this,  Sheridan  did  not  graduate  till 
1853,  when  he  was  commissioned  a  brevet  second  lieutenant  of  infantry, 
and  sent  to  Texas  immediately  on  the  expiration  of  the  usual  leave  of 
absence  granted  to  graduates  on  their  leaving  the  military  academy. 

A  brief  rest  at  home,  with  one  of  his  class  :  then,  Sheridan  was  oft' 
to  begin  that  eventful  career  which  has  placed  his  name  among  the  half 
dozen  foremost  soldiers  of  this  country.  At  the  academy  he  acquired 
the  habits  of  the  cadets.  He  naturally  grew  fond  of  his  pipe,  and 
among  the  many  relics  and  trophies  of  his  wonderful  forty  years  of 
superb  activities,  the  little  mahogany-hued  meerschaum,  which  with  all  a 
boy's  pride  he  "  stained"  while  a  cadet,  is  still  preserved  in  his  kuir.ly 
and  interesting  Washington  home.  He  made  the  town-people  of  Som- 
erset remember  him  as  the  roads  and  by-ways  witnessed  his  feats  of 
horsemanship,  of  reckless  riding.  The  picture  of  Lieutenant  Sheridan 
was  taken  during  this  visit.  It  is  a  curious  evidence  of  the  sturdy  sim- 
plicity of  the  Sheridan  family  that  this  old-fashioned  picture,  so  valuable 
a  reminiscence  of  a  great  historical  character,  had  been  almost  forgotten 
by  even  his  mother,  until  it  was  sought  for  as  a  valuable  portion  of  the 
material  that  was  being  collected  for  this  volume.  Perhaps  this  sturdy 
simplicity  can  be  best  illustrated  by  a  later  incident : 

Captain  Greiner,  of  Somerset,  a  few  years  after  the  Civil  War  closed, 
was  a  candidate  for  some  county  office.  In  conducting  a  personal 
canvass,  he  rode  horseback.  Calling  at  the  home  of  John  and  Mary 
Sheridan,  the  general's  parents,  the  old  gentleman  (who  died  a  little 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  33 

later,  in  1875)  remarked  upon  the  fact  that  the  captain  was  using  a 
very  poor  saddle.  He  said  : 

"  Captain  Greiner,  you'll  never  get  through  this  campaign  on  that 
saddle,  and  you'd  better  let  me  give  you  another.  We  have  one  that 
Phil  sent  home  not  long  ago,  and  it's  the  one  he  rode  at  Winchester." 

Of  course  the  captain  demurred  at  the  idea  of  taking  so  valuable  a 
relic.  John  Sheridan,  however,  insisted  that  he  could  have  it  just  as 
well  as  not.  The  saddle  —  a  regulation  McClellan  stock,  with  worn 
military  trappings,  well-covered  with  dust,  and  bearing  the  marks  of 
hard  usage  —  was  brought  out.  One  of  the  stirrups  was  missing,  to  be 
found  after  some  search.  The  saddle  was  really  needed,  but  Captain 
Greiner  was  very  much  averse  to  taking  what  he  deemed  the  soldier's 
parents  would  prize  so  highly.  He  finally  said  : 

"  It  seems  to  me  that  you  ought  to  keep  this  saddle,  Mr.  Sheridan.. 
If  one  of  my  boys  had  played  such  a  great  part  in  the  war  and  had 
made  such  a  famous  ride  on  this  saddle  as  Phil  did,  no  money  could 
buy  it  of  me." 

"  Oh,  as  to  that,"  said  Mr.  Sheridan,  as  he  straightened  himself  up, 
"  I  am  proud  enough  of  Phil,  and  I'm  glad  he  did  his  work  well.  I 
don't  care  so  much  about  his  promotions,  nor  about  those  stories  and 
poems  about  his  ride.  It  would  have  hurt  me  had  he  played  the  cow- 
ard, and  I  would  have  felt  very  mean  if  he  had  not  turned  out  well. 
But  I  don't  care  for  his  old  hats  and  swords  and  for  this  old  saddle,  so 
if  you  want  it,  you  are  welcome  to  it." 

Captain  Greiner  took  the  saddle,  and  it  was  for  a  long  time  in  the 
relic  room  at  the  capitol  at  Columbus.  It  has  been  at  many  an  army 
reunion,  and  is  now  the  property  of  the  State  of  Ohio. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  quaint  and  self-possessed  Irish- 
American,  sturdily  democratic  to  the  core,  was  indifferent  to  the  renown 
won  by  his  son,  or  was  careless  of  the  great  career  that  son's  genius 
has  so  splendidly  carved.  It  was  the  American  idea  that  spoke  in 
John  Sheridan's  words.  It  was  the  idea  of  duty,  of  manhood,  and  of 
personal  devotion  that  was  regarded,  and  not  the  factitious  adjuncts  or 
relics  that  received  the  parental  approval.  It  is  this  civic  quality,  also, 
which  has  won  for  his  son  the  plaudits  of  the  country-side.  This  is  the 
lesson  of  American  democracy  as  expressed  in  citizenship  and  its 
service. 

Another  incident  belonging  to  Sheridan's  graduation  year  illustrates 
the  courage  and  self-possession  of  the  dear  old  mother,  who  passed 
away  at  the  age  of  eighty-seven, while  the  General  himself  was  struggling 


}4  THE  LIFE  OF 

with  a  terrible  complication  of  disorders.  John  Sheridan,  as  a  railroad 
sub-contractor,  had  150  men  in  his  employ.  He  was  absent  at  the  time  a 
fatal  riot  occurred  between  the  railroad  -hands,  numbering  in  all  600, 
and  those  of  a  circus  which  was  exhibiting  at  Somerset.  The  first 
day's  fighting  was  a  bloody  one,  and  word  was  sent  along  the  construc- 
tion works  for  all  the  laborers  to  assemble.  John  Sheridan's  men  were 
so  notified,  and  came  by  scores  to  the  rendezvous  at  Somerset.  Mrs. 
Sheridan  learned  of  the  disturbance  and  of  the  proposed  action  of  her 
husband's  workmen.  By  dint  of  mingled  persuasion  and  authority  she 
succeeded  in  inducing  them  all  to  return  to  their  boarding-houses. 
The  state  militia  was  called  out  next  day  to  quell  the  disturbance,  but 
the  Sheridan  men  took  no  part  in  it. 

The  active  life  of  the  young  soldier  began  with  the  close  of  his 
brief  holiday.  As  brevet  second  lieutenant  he  joined  a  company  of  the 
First  Infantry  at  Fort  Duncan,  on  the  Rio  Grande,  Texas,  where  he 
served  against  Comanche,  Lipan,  and  Apache  till  early  in  1855,  when 
he  was  made  second  lieutenant  in  the  Fourth  Infantry.  In  May  of 
that  year  he  was  in  command  at  Fort  Wood,  New  York  Harbor.  He 
was  then  sent  with  recruits,  via  Panama,  to  San  Francisco,  and  on 
arrival  there  was  ordered  to  Washington  Territory.  Detailed  to  com- 
mand of  the  escort  of  Lieutenant  Williamson,  then  surveying  a  railroad 
from  the  Sacramento  River,  California,  to  the  Columbia  River,  Oregon, 
he  became  topographically  familiar  with  that  wonderful  region.  De- 
tached from  this  escort  duty  in  September,  1855,  at  Vancouver,  Washing- 
ton Territory,  Lieutenant  Sheridan  was  ordered  to  accompany  and  com- 
mand a  detachment  of  dragoons  in  the  expedition  of  Major  Raines,  of 
the  Fourth  Infantry,  to  the  Yakima  reservation,  Oregon,  against  an 
Indian  tribe  of  that  name.  He  returned  to  Columbia  the  same  fall. 
His  conduct  in  the  fights  with  the  Indians  at  the  Cascades  of  Columbia 
were  specially  mentioned  as  very  gallant. 

The  great  river  of  Oregon  breaks  through  the  Cascade  Range,  a 
mountain  formation  which  practically  divides  Oregon  into  two  sections. 
Forty  odd  miles  east  of  the  Cascades  the  Columbia  makes,  by  "  turning 
on  its  edge,"  what  is  termed  the  "  Dalles."  Sheridan's  earliest  duty 
was  in  this  region,  where  settlements  had  already  commenced,  menaced, 
though  they  were,  by  the  constant  unfriendliness  of  the  Yakima  Indians. 
The  pioneers  of  Oregon  have  not  yet  forgotten  the  scenes  which  accom- 
panied and  followed  the  outbreak  in  1847,  when  Dr.  Whitman  and  his 
associates  were  massacred  in  the  Walla  Walla  Valley.  Sheridan 
arrived  in  the  winter  of  18^3-4,  and  entered  at  once  into  active  and 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN. 


SHERIDAN  A  DRY  GOODS  CLERK. 

PRESENT     APPEARANCE     OF     THE     OLD     STORE    AT    SOMERSET,    OHIO,    WHERE    "  LITTLE    PHIL  " 
STOOD   BEHIND  THE  COUNTER. 
\_From  a  Recent  Photograph^ 

arduous  service,  both  at  post  and  in  the  field.  In  the  former,  by  ser- 
vice as  adjutant,  commissary,  quartermaster,  as  well  as  by  company 
duty,  he  acquired  that  minute  knowledge  of  all  military  administration 
and  details  which  so  early  distinguished  his  army  career. 

In  the  field  there  was  found  ample  opportunity  for  Sheridan,  subor- 
dinate though  he  was,  to  prove  the  metal  of  which  he  was  made.  Old 
army  men  who  served  with  the  tireless,  audacious,  restless,  daring 
young  officer,  are  never  tired  of  telling  of  his  feats  and  exploits.  An 
interesting  fact  is  that,  though  an  infantry  officer,  Sheridan  was  oftenest 


36  THE  LIFE  OF 

assigned  when  in  the  field  to  command  of  a  detachment  of  dragoons. 
On  one  occasion,  in  the  fall  of  1855,  he. made  a  march  from  Fort  Red- 
ding, where  he  was  stationed,  to  the  north  side  of  the  Columbia  River. 
It  was  over  a  very  rugged  country,  passing,  in  fact,  through  the  famous 
lava  beds,  where  in  1873, 'General  Canby  lost  his  life  at  the  hands  of  the 
Modoc  Indians.  This  same  tribe,  whose  meagre  remnants  are  now 
settled  as  poor  farmers  in  the  Indian  Territory,  fired  upon  Sheridan 
and  his  detachment  during  the  march  in  question.  No  one  was 
wounded,  however.  At  Klamath  Lake,  during  the  same  march,  a 
canoe  was  descried  upon  a  small  island.  Lieutenant  Sheridan,  in  order 
to  secure  it  ancTto  find  out  whether  it  was  evidence  of  any  Indian  move- 
ment, with  one  man  swam  out  to  the  island  and  brought  back  the  canoe. 

In  command  of  his  dragoon  detachment,  Lieutenant  Sheridan  was 
always  actively  at  work.  In  the  fall  of  1855,  while  at  the  Dalles, 
one  night  the  long  roll  was  sounded.  Information  had  been  received 
of  an  attack  on  the  block-house  and  settlement  at  the  Cascades,  by 
Yakima  Indians.  The  people  were  in  great  peril,  as  a  general  massa- 
cre was  threatened.  Colonel  Marcus  J.  Wright,  commanding  the  Ninth 
Infantry,  who  had  just  taken  up  the  line  of  march  for  other  quarters, 
was  hastily  informed  and  recalled.  General  Wright  acquired  in  this 
way  that  knowledge  of  Sheridan's  value,  which  enabled  him  to  truth- 
fully telegraph  General  Halleck  some  years  after,  just  previous  to  the 
Perryville  campaign,  that  he  wanted  Sheridan,  who  "was  worth  his 
weight  in  gold,"  ordered  to  report  to  him  for  duty  as  brigadier. 

Lieutenant  Sheridan  at  once  put  his  cavalry  detachment  on  board 
the  river  steamer  Belle,  with  a  handy  twelve-pound  howitzer.  Early 
the  next  morning  the  Belle  reached  the  Lower  Cascades,  being  as  far 
as  her  regular  -trips  extended.  She  stopped  at  a  landing  made  by  a 
Mr.  Johnson,  near  Bradford's  Island.  From  this  point  the  Indians 
could  be  seen  in  force  on  the  island.  Breakfast  was  ordered  at  once. 
Sheridan  told  his  men  there  would  be  some  hard  fighting  and  perhaps 
some  killing.  Not  waiting  to  learn  what  was  in  progress  at  the  Cas- 
cades settlement,  he  prepared  for  an  attack  upon  the  Indians  on  the 
island.  This  was  made  on  the  west  side  and  from  the  north  bank  of 
the  Columbia  River,  and  his  little  force  was  immediately  deployed.  His 
men  were  ordered  to  take  advantage  of  every  cover,  and  to  fire  only 
when  they  could  see  the  Indians.  In  this  way  the  small  force  advanced 
slowly  in  skirmishing  order.  Sheridan's  orderly,  an  Irishman  named 
McGraw,  soon  shouted  out  that  he  saw  an  Indian.  He  fell  dead  imme- 
diately, shot  in  the  mouth  which  he  had  just  used  so  unwisely.  A 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN.  37 

volley  was  drawn  on  the  advancing  detachment  by  the  injudicious 
shout.  Greatly  outnumbered,  Sheridan,  having  removed  McGraw's 
body  to  the  rear,  commenced  a  slow  retreat,  firing  rapidly  as  he  fell 
back.  At  the  shore  he  brought  into  play  the  howitzer  that  his  fore- 
sight had  caused  him  to  place  on  the  steamboat.  The  Indians  were 
checked  and  finally  fell  back.  McGraw  was  our  only  loss.  In  the 
evening  Sheridan  drew  off  his  dragoons  to  the  Belle,  keeping  steam* 
up,  and  preserving  a  vigilant  watch.  His  handful  of  men  were  greatly 
outnumbered,  and  he  was  unable  to  take  more  aggressive  action. 

The  Indians  remained  quiet  during  the  night.  At  early  dawn  a 
whale-boat  was  obtained  arid  the  detachment  embarked,  making  its  way 
up  stream  to  Bradford's  Island.  They  found  Colonel  Wright  with  several 
companies  of  the  Ninth  Infantry,  having  made  a  forced  march,  busiiy 
engaged  with  the  Indians.  The  latter  soon  commenced  to  run,  tak- 
ing flight  in  canoes  and  by  swimming  to  the  south  side  of  the  river. 
The  dragoons  under  Sheridan  were  at  once  sent  to  the  block-house, 
where  they  remained  a  short  time,  and  then  returned  to  the  Lower  Cas- 
cades, where  they  remained  a  few  weeks,  until  relieved  by  a  company 
of  the  Ninth  Infantry. 

It  was  a  brief  but  stirring  Indian  campaign.  General  Wool,  com- 
manding the  department,  arrived  on  the  field  and  topjk  command  in 
person.  At  its  close,  the  old  soldier  predicted  that  the  young  lieuten- 
ant would  some  day  be  a  colonel.  For  his  services  in,  this  campaign 
Sheridan  received  the  thanks  of  General  Scott,  being  named  in  general 
orders  and  breveted  first  lieutenant, —  a  promotion  that  like  all  he  has 
won,  was  the  result  of  service  in  the  field  and  hard  fighting. 

Another  expedition  in  which  Lieutenant  Sheridan  took  part,  again 
entered  the  Yakima  country.  While  so  engaged,  he  was  ordered,  on 
one  occasion,  to  cross  a  stream  in  order  to  scout  against  Indians  supposed 
to  be  on  the  opposite  shore.  This  order  was  executed  by  placing  an 
infantry  sharpshooter  behind  the  saddle  of  each  cavalryman.  The 
stream  was  not  deep,  but  rapid,  and  two  artillerymen  who  followed  with 
the  howitzer,  were  drowned  in  crossing.  No  Indians  were  found,  how- 
ever. A  Cayuse  scout  employed  by  Sheridan  on  this  expedition  was 
known  as  Cut-Mouth  John,  and  on  one  occasion  an  Indian  called  out 
to  him  to  know  if  he  would  "  talk."  John  replied,  ferociously,  "  I'll 
kill  you  first  and  talk  afterward."  He  was  as  good  as  his  word  and  got 
his  enemy's  scalp,  which  he  stretched  that  night,  having  a  little  dance 
around  it  by  himself.  John  used  to  be  on  good  terms  with  all  the 
officers,  but  when  Major  Raines,  afterward  in  the  Confederate  army, 


?8  THE  LIFE  OF 

ordered  him  to  bury  that  scalp,  he  sulked,  and  had  nothing  more  to  do 
with  them.  The  Indian  he  slew  was  the^only  one  known  to  be  killed 
on  this  expedition. 

On  arriving  at  Yakima  Mission,  orders  were  received  to  proceed 
with  Colonel  Nesmith  and  a  party  of  volunteers  toward  White  River 
or  Natchez  Pass.  Nesmith  was  afterward  United  States  Senator  from 
'Oregon.  Major  Maloney  was  supposed  to  be  coming  from  Fort  Steila- 
coom,  on  Puget  Sound,  to  hem  in  the  Indians  from  the  north.  It  was 
snowing  furiously,  and  the  dragoons  crossed  Bald  Hill  in  a  cold  storm, 
Lieutenant  Sheridan  and  all  his  men  being  compelled  to  dismount  and 
lead  the  horses.  Further  progress  being  impossible,  and  Major  Malo- 
ney not  being  met,  the  command  returned  to  the  Dalles  and  camped  on 
Mill  Creek  in  tents.  The  dragoons  were  camped  a  short  distance  above 
the  fort,  which  was  rebuilding  under  Captain  Jordan.  This  officer 
afterward  became  historically  noted  as  General  Beauregard's  chief  of 
staff.  Major  Haller  was  in  command  of  the  post.  The  Indian  disturb- 
ances were  continued  sporadically  for  two  or  three  years,  without  any 
results  more  serious  than  the  fears  of  the  settlers  in  Oregon  and  Southern 
Washington,  or  of  the  necessary  activity  of  trie  small  body  of  regulars 
stationed  in  that  section  of  our  national  domain.  Captain  U.  S.  Grant 
was  among  the  officers  stationed  in  the  same  department,  but  the  two 
soldiers  who  were  afterward  to  be  so  nobly  associated  together,  did  not 
meet  during  the  three  years  of  their  service  in  that  frontier  military  com- 
mand. 

The  service  on  the  Pacific  coast  illustrates  the  methods  that  controlled 
the  War  Department  and  army  headquarters  for  at  least  two  decades 
preceding  the  outbreak  of  civil  war.  There  is  no  reason  to  doubt 
that  prominent  southern  leaders  had  brought  their  minds  to  the  convic- 
tion that  an  armed  conflict  "  between  the  states  "  was  bound  to  come 
over  the  question  of  slavery.  The  history  of  the  Kansas  struggle  is 
sufficient  to  prove  this  ;  but  to  the  historical  student  it  will  be  much 
more  clearly  shown  in  the  administration  of  two  great  branches  of  gov- 
ernment which  seriously  molded  the  conditions  of  life  in  the  then  almost 
unknown  West,  from  the  Missouri  River  to  the  Pacific  Ocean.  In  the 
twenty  years  indicated,  that  is,  from  1840  to  1860,  there  will  not  be 
found  the  names  of  over  a  score  of  northern  born  men  appointed  to 
positions  as  Indian  agents,  or  other  important  places  connected  with 
that  service.  Of  that  score  not  a  half  dozen  can  be  named  who  were 
in  sympathy  with  free  soil  ideas.  In  the  Kansas  struggle  there  was  but 
one  such  man,  Agent  Gay,  of  the  Shawnee  tribe,  and  he  was  killed 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN. 


THE  OUTBREAK  OF  THE  REBELLION. 


THE   ATTACK   ON    SUMTER. 


early  in  that  conflict.  As  with  the  Indian  service,  so  with  that  of  the 
army  administration.  During  the  control  of  the  War  Department  by 
Jefferson  Davis  and  John  B.  Floyd,  it  will  be  found  that  the  regular 
army  and  its  officers  were  so  stationed  and  employed  as  to  throw  the 
younger  men,  those  unknown  beyond  their  commands,  and  those  of 
northern  birth  who  might  be  reasonably  considered  as  loyal  to  the  Union, 
far  from  the  field  of  probable  operations,  and  at  posts  where  they  could 
be  of  the  least  service.  Officers,  on  the  other  hand,  who  by  birth  and 
social  conditions  were  likely  to  be  drawn  at  once  to  the  South,  were 
retained  in  posts  and  departments  which  would  render  them  immedi- 
ately available  for  the  purposes  of  disunion.  An  illustration  of  this 
was  seen  in  the  re-organization  by  Jefferson  Davis  while  Secretary  of 
War,  of  the  famous  Second  Regiment  of  Cavalry.  A  roster  of  this 
regiment,  as  officered  by  Mr.  Davis,  will  showr  such  names  as  Robert 
E.  Lee,  Longstreet.  Albert  Sidney  Johnston,  Anderson,  Philip  St. 
George  Cooke,  Stein,  George  H.  Thomas,  Sturgis,  and  others.  Of  the 
forty  odd  picked  officers  who  were  in  this  favored  organization  there 
were  not  over  half  a  dozen  of  northern  birth.  Only  as  many  remained 


4o  THE  LIFE  OF 

faithful  to  the  flag  after  Sumter  was  fired  upon,  and  among  these  was 
the  immortal  Virginian  patriot  and  soldier,  George  H.  Thomas,  who 
was  senior  major  of  the  Second  Cavalry^when  rebellion  began.  He 
was  stationed  at  a  western  fort  in  the' Indian  Territory.  Sturgis  was 
at  Fort  Smith,  Arkansas.  Both  officers  brought  their  commands  into 
the  Union  lines.  In  the  central  territories  there  was  some  disaffection, 
but  the  loyalty  of  the  rank  and  file  saved  the  public  property  and  terri- 
tory. Colonel  Canby  at  Santa  Fe,  held  the  southwest  territories. 
The  loyal  volunteers  of  Colorado  held  the  centre,  and  to  the  northwest 
as  far  as  the  Pacific  there  was  scarcely  any  disaffection.  Longstreet, 
Jordan,  Ewell,  and  a  few  others  made  their  way  to  the  Confederacy 
through  Arizona  and  New  Mexico.  The  far-reaching  nature  of  the 
plot  by  which  the  free  states  and  territories  were  to  be  rendered  help- 
less can  be  seen  in  the  fact  that  Fort  Kearney,  Nebraska,  then  an  iso- 
lated and  unimportant  post  out  on  the  great  plains,  was  made  for  nearly 
or  quite  a  twelve  months  before,  an  entrepot  to  which,  under  orders  from 
the  War  Department,  arms  of  all  kinds,  ordnance  supplies,  munitions 
and  stores  of  all  sorts,  with  wagons,  artillery  carriages,  etc.,  were  sent 
from  the  various  army  posts  east  as  far  as  Fort  Leaven  worth  and  west 
as  far  as  California  and  Oregon.  So  also  Fort  Wise  on  the  southwest 
border  of  Kansas  Territory,  was  used.  Its  site  is  now  known  as  Fort 
Lyon.  The  march  of  Major  Sedgwick,  afterward  the  gallant  com- 
mander of  the  famous  Fifth  Army  Corps,  saved  the  stores  and  arms  at 
Fort  Wise.  Those  at  Fort  Kearney  were  saved  by  the  prompt  and  loyal 
courage  of  an  orderly  sergeant,  afterwards  a  lieutenant-colonel  of 
volunteers.  Sergeant  Schultze  —  he  is  a  German-American  and 
served  in  Captain  Nathaniel  B.  Lyon's  command,  Company  B,  Sec- 
ond Infantry — resisted  the  efforts  of  a  party  of  deserting  officers  to 
carry  off  the  guns  and  munitions  stored  at  Fort  Kearney.  There  were 
nearly  one  hundred  twelve-pound  howitzers  massed  at  this  point.  They 
were  left  to  the  care  of  a  handful  of  soldiers  under  an  ordnance  ser- 
geant. All  the  frontier  troops  in  the  early  summer  of  1861  were 
ordered  to  concentrate  at  Fort  Leavenworth  and  at  Omaha,  from  the 
posts  on  the  plains  and  among  the  Rockies.  Sergeant  Schultze  arrived 
at  the  same  time  that  the  southern  army  officers  reached  Fort  Kearney. 
By  a  bold  appeal  to  his  men  and  a  determined  front  on  the  soldiers' 
part,  the  fleeing  officers  decided  that  their  safety  was  to  be  found  in 
a  more  rapid  flight. 

These  incidents  of  the  early  days  of  the  war  "  out  West  "are  neces- 
sary to  make  clear  the  reason  why  officers  like  Sheridan  were  not  sooner 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  41 

ordered  into  the  scenes  of  great  military  activity.  It  became  necessary 
to  make  quite  sure  of  our  Pacific  coast  before  the  much  needed  and 
well-trained  regular  officers  who  were  stationed  there  could  be  relieved. 

The  Pacific  coast  officers,  though  removed  from  the  scene  of  hostili- 
ties when  the  war  broke  out,  had  plenty  of  patriotic  ardor.  General 
Sumner,  who  arrived  at  San  Francisco  early  in  June,  as  department 
commander,  issued  an  order  that  "  all  officers  charged  with  the  care  of 
public  property  will  hold  themselves  in  readiness  at  all  times  to  protect 
it  at  any  hazard.  No  public  property  will  be  surrendered  in  this  depart- 
ment" ;  and  on  the  heels  of  this  order  came  another,  that  "  any  citizen 
in  the  employment  of  the  army  in  this  department  who  is  opposed  to 
the  Union  will  be  instantly  discharged."  This  was  the  spirit  of  the 
army  administration  out  there.  It  was  efficient  in  covering  the  real 
intentions  of  the  general  government,  through  which  the  loyal  Pacific 
States  and  Territories  finally  took  almost  entire  charge  of  their  own 
defense,  organizing  an  army  or  National  Guard  of  volunteer  militia  in 
California  and  Oregon,  fully  equipped  by  the  general  government.  The 
''regulars"  stationed  there  were  all  kept  busy  till  the  close  of  1861,  assist- 
ing in  the  organization  indicated.  The  story  of  the  Civil  War  from  the 
Missouri  to  the  Pacific  coast  remains  to  be  told,  but  an  incident  thereof 
was  the  delaying  of  Sheridan's  transfer  to  a  more  active  field. 

In  October,  1861,  Brevet  First  Lieutenant  Sheridan  was  commis- 
sioned captain  in  the  Thirteenth  Infantry,  and  soon  after  ordered  to  re- 
port to  General  Halleck  at  St.  Louis  for  assignment  to  duty.  He 
arrived  there  late  in  the  year,  and  at  the  beginning  of  the  New  Year 
was  ordered  to  report  to  Brigadier  Samuel  R.  Curtis  for  duty  in  the 
field  as  chief  quartermaster  and  commissary  of  the  Army  of  South- 
west Missouri,  then  in  camp  at  Springfield,  and  preparing  for  a  forward 
movement  to  the  southwest  against  the  Confederate  troops  of  Missouri, 
Arkansas,  Northern  Louisiana,  and  Texas,  then  concentrating  in  the 
Ozark  Mountains  under  Sterling  Price,  Van  Dorn,  Ben  McCullough, 
Raines,  Marmaduke,  Fagan,  and  Albert  Pike,  among  others  who  after- 
wards became  distinguished.  On  the  2d  of  January,  1862,  General 
S.  R.  Curtis  reported  from  Rollo  to  department  headquarters  at  St. 
Louis,  that  Captain  Sheridan  had  reported  and  been  assigned  to  duty. 
Staff-officers  and  others  associated  with  Captain  Sheridan  in  that  army 
recall  his  indomitable,  tireless  activity  and  administrative  ability.  His 
post  was  no  sinecure,  but  On  the  contrary  bore  in  its  execution  far  more 
than  the  usual  burden  of  difficulties  accompanying  such  important 
branches  of  military  organization.  West  of  the  Missouri,  the  Union 


42  THE  LIFE  OF 

forces  were,  from  the  beginning  till  the  close  of  the  war,  more  ineffi- 
ciently and  poorly  supplied  than  was  elsewhere  the  case.  The  State  of 
Missouri,  especially  its  western  and.  "southwestern  portions, was  in- 
tensely disloyal.  The  Kansas  conflict  had  embittered  the  people,  free  soil 
and  pro-slavery,  to  the  utmost.  It  was  hard  work  to  keep  the  Kansas 
volunteers  within  bounds  on  the  soil  of  Missouri.  It  was  far  harder 
work  to  make  the  southern  sympathizers  resident  in  Missouri  under- 
stand the  laws  of  war.  They  were  generally  ready  to  turn  bush- 
whackers on  the  slightest  opportunity,  and  on  all  occasions,  within  or 
without  the  lines  of  the  Federal  forces,  were  utterly  unscrupulous 
enemies  of  the  Union.  There  was  a  phrase  in  use  out  there  which 
humorously  embodied  the  bitter  antagonism  felt  towards  a  policy 
that  dealt  with  the  people  of  the  border  states,  especially  those  of 
Missouri,  as  loyal  citizens.  It  was  applied  generally  to  the  Kan- 
sas volunteers,  who  were  commonly  known  and  sneered  at  for  the 
first  two  years  of  the  war  as  "  Jayhawkers."  The  conservative  regular 
army  officers,  especially,  cherished  bitter  prejudices  against  the  soldiers 
of  that  state  with  whom  they  came  in  contact,  no  matter  how  soldierly 
and  valorous  were  their  conduct  or  acts.  The  term  "jayhawker" 
was  originally  applied  to  the  Seventh  Regiment  (cavalry)  of  Kansas 
Volunteers,  whom  Fremont  first  assigned  to  duty  in  Western  Missouri 
with  orders  to  live  on  the  country.  That  term  thus  came  to  represent 
a  distinct  view  of  army  policy.  In  the  east  the  opposite  view  was 
taken  by  McClellan  ;  in  the  centre  by  Buell  and  Rosecrans,  and  in  the 
west  to  some  extent  by  Halleck.  General  Curtis  was  a  graduate  of 
West  Point,  who  early  in  his  army  life  had  resigned  to  practice  law. 
He  settled  in  Iowa,  and  was  sent  to  Congress  from  the  Keokuk  district 
as  a  Republican.  He  was  an  intimate  friend  of  Mr.  Lincoln's.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  Civil  War,  he  entered  the  army  again.  Halleck 
assigned  him  to  the  command  of  the  army  which  was  to  be  the  right 
wing  of  the  great  field  wherein  he  proposed  to  operate,  extending  from 
Western  Arkansas  to  Northern  Georgia. 

W'ith  a  meagre  army  chest  and  insufficient  supplies,  General  Curtis, 
knowing  that  if  he  did  not  make  use  of  the  stock,  grain,  etc.,  to  be 
found  in  Southwest  Missouri  the  rebel  guerrillas  and  cavalry  raiders 
would  do  so,  ordered  his  chief  quartermaster  to  supply  deficiencies 
from  the  country  so  far  as  possible,  and  to  give  vouchers  therefor,  pay- 
able on  proof  of  the  bearer's  loyalty.  Captain  Sheridan  demurred  to 
this  policy,  which  he  called  "  jayhawking,"  and  at  last  made  his  oppo- 
sition so  obnoxious,  that  when  General  Curtis  finally  began  the  forward 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  4? 

movements  and  field  operations  which  eventuated  in  the  hard-fought 
battle  and  victory  of  Pea  Ridge,  in  the  march  across  Arkansas,  and  in 
the  capture  and  occupation  of  Helena  on  the  Mississippi  as  an  import- 
ant basis  among  others  for  the  great  operations  by  which,  a  year  later, 
the  "  Father  of  Waters  "  was  allowed  "  to  run  unvexed  to  the  sea," 
that  commander  felt  himself  obliged  to  relieve  Captain  Sheridan  and 
order  him  to  report  to  General  Halleck  at  St.  Louis  for  duty.  This 
apparent  slight  became  the  turning  point  in  the  young  soldier's  famous 
career.  He  was  taken  by  Halleck  to  the  army  before  Corinth  as  chief 
commissary,  and  in  that  way  came  again  under  the  notice  of  the  cavalry 
commander,  General  Stanley,  by  whose  suggestion  he  was  appointed 
colonel  of  the  Second  Michigan  Cavalry,  just  one  month  after  he 
arrived  in  Northern  Mississippi.  As  for  his  conservative  antagonism  to 
"  jayhawking,"  it  vanished  when  he  entered  on  cavalry  service.  The 
Captain  Sheridan  who  resisted  in  Southwest  Missouri,  early  in  1862, 
the  policy  of  the  commander  on  whose  staff  he  served,  blossomed  under 
the  conditions  of  the  war  into  the  stern  general,  who,  in  1864,  declared 
while  fighting  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  that  he  "  proposed  to  make 
it  so  bare  that  a  crow  flying  over  it  would  have  to  carry  his  rations." 

An  incident  of  Sheridan's  quartermaster  service  in  Southwest 
Missouri,  told  after  the  war  in  Household  Words,  a  magazine  that 
preceded  Scribner's,  deserves  a  brief  mention  here,  as  it  illustrates 
Sheridan's  character  and  courage.  An  army  wagon  with  its  team  was 
stalled  on  the  road  some  distance  south  of  Springfield.  The  teamster, 
a  burly  six-footer,  was  engaged  in  brutally  whipping  his  mules.  Riding 
near  by  on  the  left  of  the  road  was  a  stout  but  low-statured  man,  clad  in  a 
fatigue  suit  of  army  blue,  without  any  insignia  of  rank  or  staff  buttons, 
and  wearing  a  battered  army  hat.  He  drew  rein  at  the  stalled  wagon, 
and  in  a  few  moments  asked  the  teamster  authoritatively,  why  he  beat  the 
mules  so  severely.  The  ruffian  replied  with  a  savage  oath,  and  imme- 
diately struck  the  near  animal  with  the  heavy  butt  of  his  "  black-jack," 
as  the  wagoner's  whip  is  called.  To  a  shout  from  the  horseman  the 
burly  teamster  replied  with  a  threat  to  serve  him  the  same  way.  An 
eye-witness,  who  wrote  the  magazine  article,  says  that  the  threat  was 
scarcely  made  before  the  rider  shot  from  his  saddle,  for  all  the  world 
like  a  stone  projected  from  a  catapult,  and  in  a  secqnd  was  at  the  ruf- 
fian's throat.  It  was  seen  that  this  assailant  was  a  smaller  man,  but 
somehow  he  brought  the  big  teamster  at  once  to  his  knees,  and  poured 
upon  his  head,  neck,  and  chest  such  a  rain  of  savage  blows,  ending  in 
twisting  the  whip  out  of  the  man's  hand  and  applying  it  vigorously 


44  GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN, 

over  arms  and  shoulders,  until  the  fellow  fairly  blubbered  for  mercy. 
His  assailant  let  him  up,  applying  a  vigorous  kick  as  he  arose.  "Who 
the  devil  are  you  ?  "  asked  the  amazed  tahd  cowed  bully. 

"  Captain  Sheridan,  quartermaster  of  this  army,  and  if  you  don't 

get  to  work  d quick  to  get  this  wagon  out  of  the  way,  by , 

I'll  thrash  you  again." 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  man  went  to  work  under  Sheridan's 
orders.  The  mules  had  recovered  their  strength.  In  a  few  minutes 
the  team  and  wagon  were  on' the  dry  road.  With  a  parting  admonition 
and  objurgation,  "  Little  Phil"  mounted  his  patient  horse,  which  had 
watched  the  rencounter  with  seeming  approval,  and  rode  away. 

Captain  Sheridan's  experiences  with  the  army  of  Southwest  Mis- 
souri, though  not  altogether  satisfactory  to  him  at  the  time,  must 
have  been  productive  of  fruitful  knowledge.  General  Curtis,  speaking 
of  his  whilom  quartermaster,  when  the  latter  was  rising  so  rapidly  to 
the  zenith  of  his  fame,  declared  that  Captain  Sheridan  was  one  of  the 
ablest  and  most  indefatigable  of  staff  officers.  No  labor  was  too  great, 
no  exertion  too  severe  for  him  to  undertake  in  the  line  of  duty.  But 
his  prejudices  were  as  stubborn  as  his  independence  was  marked.  He 
allowed  nothing  for  any  one's  superibr  knowledge  of  the  region,  and  in 
the  matter  of  their  differences  as  to  the  impressment  of  stock,  etc.,  was 
so  determined  in  his  opposition  as  to  compel  General  Curtis,  much  to 
his  regret,  to  relieve  his  rather  insubordinate  subordinate  from  duty  on 
the  staff,  and  order  him  to  St.  Louis.  In  a  personal  letter  to  the  de- 
partment commander,  General  Curtis  strongly  urged  Captain  Sheridan's 
assignment  to  active  field  service,  assured  that  he  would  win  renown 
for  himself  and  credit  to  the  cause.  As  to  the  policy  of  making  war, 
Sheridan  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley  carried  out  the  course  indicated  by 
Curtis  nearly  three  years  before,  only  the  younger  and  greater  soldier 
made  it  more  sweeping  and  rigorous. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


AN  UNEXPECTED  PROMOTION. 

HOW  SHERIDAN  WAS  MADE  A  COLONEL  —  CAPTAIN  ALGER'S  RIDE  AND  ITS  RE- 
SULTS—  CORINTH  AND  PITTSBURG  LANDING  —  GOVERNOR  BLAIR'S  HESI- 
TANCY  THE  APPOINTMENT NOTIFIED  OF  THIS  ADVANCEMENT  —  SATIS- 
FIED WITH  THE*  RANK  OF  COLONEL  —  TAKES  COMMAND  OF  HIS  REGI- 
MENT  ITS  FIRST  IMPRESSION  OF  HIM. 

WHEN  the  Civil  War  had  been  going  on  for  more  than  a  year, 
Sheridan  was  still  an  issuer  of  rations  with  only  the  rank  of  captain. 
Had  not  General  Grant  been  relieved  of  the  command  of  his  army 
after  the  battle  of  Shiloh,  Sheridan  might  never  have  left  the  commis- 
sary department  to  lead  men  in  battle.  It  is  true  that  he  fretted  in  the 
position  he  then  held  on  General  Halleck's  staff.  He  had  done  the  best 
he  could  to  secure  the  command  of  some  regiment  from  his  native  state, 
but  he  was  then  without  fame  or  influence,  and  for  each  new  regiment 
that  was  called  out  in  Ohio  there  were  a  dozen  aspirants  for  the  colo- 
nelcy possessed  of  social  and  political  influence.  This  was  then  a 
potent  power  as  against  a  pure  military  training.  Therefore  Sheridan's 
weeks  of  application  lengthened  into  months,  and  the  months  into  a 
second  year,  before  he  found  work  for  his  military  genius  higher  than 
that  of  looking  after  the  rough  provender  which  the  government  pro- 
vided for  its  soldiers. 

The  25th  of  May,  1862,  came,  and  Halleck,  an  old  lawyer  gen- 
eral, full  of  cranks  and  prejudices,  had  virtually  dug  his  way  in  six 
weeks  all  the  way  from  the  fateful  field  of  Shiloh  to  within  gunshot  of 
the  Confederate  outposts  at  Corinth.  Each  succeeding  mile,  from  the 
day  when  Halleck  relieved  Grant,  a  new  line  of  earthworks  was  thrown 
up  in  this  over-cautious  advance.  Graves  of  brave  men  dotted  the 
hillsides  and  valleys,  numbering  in  the  aggregate  more  souls  than  would 
have  been  lost  in  an  open  combat  with  the  Confederate  army,  which 
wns  only  half  the  size  of  that  which  Halleck  had  gathered  to  build 
twenty  miles  of  intrenchments  in  an  approach  on  Corinth. 

Just  after  the  battle  of  Shiloh,  Pope's  army,  which  had  been  oper- 


46  THE  LIFE  OF 

ating  on  the  Mississippi  below  Island  Number  Ten,  was  brought  up 
to  swell  Halleck's  forces.  With  it  was  the  Second  Michigan  Cav- 
alry, and  like  the  other  troops,  this  I'egtment  fretted  and  grew  half 
demoralized  with  the  slow  and  uncertain  policy  which  marked  Hal- 
leck's operations  after  Grant's  frightful  wrestle  with  Johnston  and 
Beauregard  on  the  banks  of  the  Tennessee.  Its  colonel,  Gordon 
Granger,  was  made  a  brigadier-general  about  this  time.  He  was  a  reg- 
ular army  officer,  who  had  been  promoted  from  a  captaincy  to  the  com- 
mand of  the  regiment  while  it  was  stationed  "in  St.  Louis.  His  dis- 
cipline was  severe,  but  it  made  the  regiment  efficient  beyond  almost 
any  other  body  of  troopers  then  in  the  service. 

His  advancement  left  it  in  a  condition  to  be  very  soon  demoralized. 
During  the  few  weeks  which  elapsed  before  a  new  colonel  was  found, 
the  regiment  drifted,  under  the  command  of  a  lieutenant-colonel,  into 
that  feeling  of  uncertainty  which  is  harmful  to  any  military  body.  As 
it  lay  one  evening,  in  the  latter  part  of  May,  within  cannon-shot  of 
*the  village  of  Corinth,  its  fate  was  dependent  upon  the  choice  of  a 
strong  hand  and  a  new  spirit  to  command  it. 

On  one  of  those  hazy,  depressing  summer  days  so  common  in  the 
southern  climate,  Captain  Russell  A.  Alger,  of  CompanyvC,  was  act- 
ing field  officer  of  the  day.  He  always  took  an  active  interest  in  the 
regiment's  welfare.  Often  with  the  other  officers  had  he  discussed, 
without  solution,  the  problem  of  finding  a  new  colonel  for  a  com- 
mand, the  record  of  which  was  then,  and  is,  second  to  that  of  no  regi- 
ment of  horse  in  the  army.  Austin  Blair  was  at  that  time  governor  of 
Michigan,  and  at  the  moment  was  visiting  the  army.  He  was  to  return 
home  the  very  day  when  the  accident  occurred  which  gave  him  an 
opportunity  to  do  a  meritorious  act,  and  endow  with  new  force  the  cav- 
alry regiment  from  his  state,  in  which  he  took  unusual  interest. 

Captain  Alger  had  been  on  picket  duty  throughout  the  night  of 
the  24th  of  May.  Early  on  the  morning  of  the  25th,  he  reported  to  Gen- 
eral Gordon  Granger  upon  some  matters  of  detail,  which  it  was  his 
duty  to  do  as  acting  field-officer  of  the  day  in  front  of  an  enemy.  After 
the  business  of  the  moment  was  over,  the  condition  of  the  Second 
Michigan  Cavalry  became  the  subject  of  discussion.  General  Granger, 
who  still  took  an  interest  in  its  welfare,  had  been  casting  about  for  some 
regular  army  officer  who  would  be  his  fit  successor  at  the  head  of  this 
splendid  regiment.  He  had  been  over  to  Halleck's  headquarters  the 
day  before  Captain  Alger's  visit,  and  had  met  Sheridan.  This  morn- 
ing, as  he  and  Alger  were  talking,  he  said  : 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 


47 


' '  I  have  found 
a    man   who   will 


make  your  regi- 
ment a  good  colo- 
nel." 

"Who  is  it?" 
asked  Alger,  earn- 
estly. 

"Captain  Phil 
Sheridan.  He  is 
now  at  Halleck's 
headquarters,  act- 
ing as  a  commis- 
sary on  his  staff." 
A  shade  of  in- 
quiry crossed  Gen- 
eral  Granger's 
countenance,  as  he 
said  : 

"He  is  just  the 
man  you  want ; 
but  I  doubt  wheth- 
er Governor  Blair 
will  commission 

another  regular  officer  to  command  a  Michigan  regiment.  He  thinks 
that  we  are  too  severe  in  our  discipline,  and  that  the  troops  do  not  like 
us." 

Captain  Alger  replied  that  the  regiment  needed  a  commander  of 
character  and  decision,  and  that  he  believed  Blair  would  do  any  rea- 
sonable thing  for  the  welfare  of  the  troops  from  his  state. 

"  Very  well,"  replied  General  Granger,  "I  will  give  you  a  letter  to 
him,  asking  Sheridan's  appointment.  He  is  now  at  Pittsburg  Land- 
ing, and  leaves  for  the  North  by  the  steamer  at  2  o'clock." 

It  was  now  breakfast  time.  Governor  Blair  was  more  than  twenty 
miles  away,  and  there  was  no  time  to  be  lost.  General  Granger  called 
an  orderly,  had  Captain  Alger's  horse  fed,  and  insisted  on  his  taking  his 
morning  meal  with  him.  During  breakfast  the  subject  of  Captain 
Sheridan's  appointment  was  earnestly  discussed.  Before  they  had 
finished  the  meal  Lieutenant  Frank  E.  Walbridge,  Quartermaster  of 
the  Second  Michigan  Cavalry,  rode  up.  Captain  Alger  asked  permis- 
sion to  take  him  with  him  for  his  interview  with  Governor  Blair. 


GEN.  GORDON  GRANGER. 


48  THE   LIFE  OF 

General  Granger  assented,  and  the  two  officers  prepared  for  the  journey. 
It  was  almost  half-past  nine  in  the  morning  when,  armed  with  an 
earnest  request  for  Sheridan's  appointment,  they  left  the  front  of  the 
Federal  lines  and  rode  toward  Pittsburg  Landing.  Captain  Alger,  who 
afterwards  became  a  brigadier-general,  has  frequently  spoken  of  the 
anxieties  of  that  ride,  when  he  must  have  recalled  something  like  the 
lines  : 

"  Ho,  pony!  down  the  lonely  road, 
Strike  now  your  cheeriest  pace  ; 
Camp-fires  cannot  burn  brighter 
Than  burns  my  anxious  face." 

As  each  mile  was  passed,  the  hour  for  the  governor's  departure 
drew  nearer  and  nearer.  It  was  only  thirty-five  minutes  before  2 
o'clock  when  Alger  and  his  companion  reached  the  landing.  In  less 
than  half  an  hour  of  the  leaving  time  of  the  boat,  General  Granger's 
letter  was  placed  in  Governor  Blair's  hands. 

As  General  Granger  had  foreseen,  the  governor  hesitated.  He  dis- 
liked the  seventy  of  regular  army  officers,  and  thought  their  influence 
over  volunteers  was  harmful,  rather  than  effective.  The  condition 
of  the  regiment  was  described  by  Captain  Alger  in  a  few  words,  and 
both  he  and  Lieutenant  Walbridge  strongly  urged  the  force  of  General 
Granger's  recommendation.  The  governor,  impressed  with  their  earn- 
estness, yielded  to  their  arguments,  and  just  a  few  moments  before  the 
boat  which  was  to  convey  him  to  Michigan  started,  he  turned  to  Gen- 
eral John  Robertson,  his  adjutant-general,  and  said  : 

"Write  an  order  appointing  Captain  Sheridan  colonel  of  the  Sec- 
ond Michigan  Cavalry,  to  take  command  at  once." 

Only  a  few  moments  were  left  for  the  adjutant-general  to  act.  He 
took  a  half  sheet  of  note  paper,  and  hurriedly  wrote  these  words  : 

PITTSBURG  LANDING,  May  25,1862. 

Captain  Philip  H.  Sheridan  is  hereby  appointed  colonel  of  the 
Second  Michigan  Cavalry.  He  is  directed  to  take  command  at  once. 

AUSTIN  BLAIR,    Governor. 

This  was  handed  to  Captain  Alger  ;  the  boat  pushed  out  into  the 
Tennessee,  and  a  great  soldier  had  been  started  on  his  way  to  fame. 

Captain  Alger  and  Lieutenant  Walbridge  fed  themselves  and  their 
horses,  and  as  the  gathering  shadows  of  night  drew  over  the  battle-field 
of  Sliiloh,  they  started  for  an  all  night's  ride  toward  the  front.  It  was 
near  daylight  when  they  Arrived.*  The  exertion  killed  Alger's  horse. 
Mounting  another,  he  rode  to  General  Granger's  headquarters  and 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  49 

announced  to  that  officer  that  he  had  Captain  Sheridan's  appointment 
in  his  pocket. 

General  Granger  directed  him  to  carry  it  to  Sheridan,  who  was  some 
two  miles  distant  at  Halleck's  headquarters.  Alger  obeyed,  and  a 
half  hour  later  met  for  the  first  time  his  new  colonel  and  the  future 
general.  He  presented  him  with  his  appointment,  and  Phil  Sheridan 
was  that  morning  the  happiest  man  in  the  whole  of  Halleck's  army. 
The  colonelcy  which  Ohio  did  not  give  her  own  son,  Michigan  had 
provided.  The  officers  of  the  staff  were  at  once  summoned  to  cele- 
brate the  occasion.  As  the  officers  drank  their  bumpers  in  his  tent  to 
his  good  luck,  there  was  an  interesting  scene.  One  brother  officer  of 
the  staff;  more  enthusiastic  than  the  rest,  pledged  the  new  colonel's 
health  with  the  toast : 

"  Here's  hoping  that  this  is  a  long  step  towards  a  brigadier's  star."' 

How  little  men  know  of  themselves  !  Sheridan,  flushed  with  the 
joy  of  the  occasion,  replied  : 

u  No,  gentlemen  ;  I  thank  you  for  your  good  wishes,  but  I  want  no 
higher  honor.  I  am  now  a  colonel  of  cavalry,  and  have  all  the  rank  I 
want  or  expect." 

The  news  of  his  appointment  spread  rapidly  through  the  regiment, 
and  every  one  wondered  what  manner  of  man  the  new  colonel  was. 
They  very  soon  found  out.  The  next  day  he  came  over  and  took  com- 
mand, and  was  introduced  to  a  regiment,  the  officers  and  men  of  which 
he  had  never  seen  before.  He  appeared  at  dress  parade,  and  his  appear- 
ance by  no  means  revealed  his  ability.  He  was  then  very  slight  in 
figure,  with  little,  short  legs  that  hardly  reached  over  his  horse's  sides, 
and  quite  broad  shoulders.  He  was  so  small  that  he  could  scarcely 
be  seen  from  one  end  of  the  regiment  to  the  other.  The  first  impres- 
sion he  made  was  not  very  satisfactory  to  either  officers  or  men.  Two 
days  later  he  started  off  on  a  raid  to  Booneville,  Mississippi,  and  proved 
his  quality.  The  regiment  at  once  took  new  life  under  his  direction. 
Both  officers  and  men  felt  perfect  confidence  in  him,  and  in  less  than 
four  days  after  his  appointment  the  soldiers  named  him  "  Little  Phil." 
They  always  afterwards  felt  an  unbounded  pride  in  their  commander. 
He  was  made  a  brigadier-general  before  he  had  received  his  commis- 
sion as  colonel ;  in  fact,  he  was  not  commissioned  as  colonel  of  the 
Second  Michigan  Cavalry  until  after  the  war.  While  he  was  in  com- 
mand at  New  Orleans,  the  commission  was  issued  to  him  by  the  gov- 
ernor as  a  matter  of  sentiment.  At  a  much  later  period,  to  make  his 
army  record  complete,  he  was  mustered  in  as  the  colonel  of  his  old 
regiment. 


PRESIDENT  LINCOLN. 

[From  a  War-Time  Photograph.} 


CHAPTER  V. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  BOONEVILLE. 

SHERIDAN'S  FIRST  BATTLE — IT  WAS  AT  BOONEVILLE,  MISSISSIPPI  —  STRENGTH 
OF  HIS  COMMAND — ITS  PERILOUS  POSITION — HOW  HE  MANAGED  HIS  TROOPS 
—  SENDING  FOR  REINFORCEMENTS — THE  SCOUT  AND  THE  NEGRO  —  FOOL- 
ING THE  ENEMY — CAPTAIN  ALGER  AND  THE  "FORLORN  HOPE" — THE 

LAST    CHARGE,  AND  A  COMPLETE    VICTORY. 

u  THE  enemy  has  ten  regiments  under  Chalmers.  I  want  support, 
particularly  artillery.  I  have  been  cut  up  some  little,  but  am  still  strong." 

This  was  Sheridan's  first  appeal  in  a  grave  emergency.  He  met  it 
with  a  fearlessness  and  show  of  military  sagacity  that  thus  early  in  war 
demonstrated  his  fitness  for  high  command.  He  was  only  a  colonel 
then  and  had  led  the  Second  Michigan  Cavalry  but  little  more  than  a 
month,  when  suddenly  called  upon  to  meet  the  serious  responsibilities 
of  a  battle  under  as  exacting  conditions  as  were  ever  imposed  upon  a 
soldier. 

It  was  2.30  in  the  afternoon  of  July  i,  1862,  when  he  sent  the 
above  dispatch  to  General  Asboth,  his  division  commander.  He  had 
then  been  fighting  against  overwhelming  odds  since  early  morning. 
At  3  o'clock,  as  the  combat  waxed  more  intense,  he  hastily  penned  this 
message  to  the  same  authority : 

u  I  have  been  holding  a  large  force  of  the  enemy  prisoners  —  say 
ten  regiments  in  all  —  all  day.  Am  considerably  cut  up,  but  am  hold- 
ing my  camp." 

These  were  the  first  echoes  from  a  desperate  combat  that  reached 
the  larger  army  twenty  miles  in  the  rear. 

It  has  been  truly  said  that  "  mighty  events  turn  upon  small  hinges." 
Sheridan's  first  experience  as  an  independent  commander  illustrates  the 
truth  of  this  adage.  His  primary  test  in  the  stroke  and  strategy  of  battle 
gave  decisive  promise  of  that  inspiration  in  danger  and  fertility  of 
resource  which,  in  the  short  space  of  two  years,  placed  him  in  the  lead 
among  the  group  that  achieved  greatness  during  the  Civil  War.  It  was 


$2  THE  LIFE  OF 

in  the  second  year  of  the  Rebellion  —  the  acute  stage  of  the  colossal 
struggle  :  the  awful  "  battle  summer  of  1862  " —  that  Sheridan  emerged 
from  the  obscurity  of  staff' duty  into  the  "stirring  arena  of  command  and 
combat. 

There  was  a  pause  in  the  death  grapple  of  the  contending  armies  of 
Halleck  and  Beauregard  when  Sheridan  was  appointed  colonel  of  the 
Second  Michigan  Cavalry.  McClellan  was  then  before  Richmond. 
Halleck  was  preparing  a  new  campaign.  The  eyes  of  the  world  were 
watching  the  Chickahominy,  while  the  Western  armies  for  the  moment 
were  inactive.  The  new  colonel  found  his  regiment  well  trained,  and 
composed  of  stalwart  men,  skilled  in  woodcraft  and  inured  to  the 
hardships  of  open-air  life.  The  man  and  the  instrument  were  well 
suited  to  each  other  and  the  dangerous  work  before  them. 

Sheridan  was  no  sooner  in  command  than  he  was  in  the  saddle  and 
taking  part  in  an  adventurous  errand.  Two  days  after  he  was  made  a 
colonel,  he,  with  his  regiment,  joined  an  expedition  under  Colonel 
W.  L.  Elliott,  of  the  Second  Iowa  Cavalry.  These  two  regiments  cut 
loose  from  the  main  army  and  pushed  southward,  to  the  rear  of  the  Con- 
federate lines.  With  but  little  halt  or  rest,  this  small  command  scoured 
the  debatable  land  between  the  armies.  It  harassed  the  Confederate 
outposts,  tore  up  the  Mobile  and  Ohio  railway,  and  burned  supplies  at 
Booneville,  Mississippi,  clearing  the  country  for  future  operations. 
This  was  the  first  successful  raid  of  the  war. 

The  cavalry  is  called  the  eye  of  the  army.  Sheridan  made  his  the 
right  arm,  as  well.  In  a  short  time  after  his  promotion  his  irresistible 
dash  and  ceaseless  activity  was  the  talk  of  the  meagre  force  of  horse- 
men attached  to  the  army  before  Corinth,  to  whom  he  was  a  wonder. 
Shortly  after  his  first  promotion,  Beauregard's  army  fell  back,  leaving 
Halleck  free  to  concentrate  his  forces  in  the  Confederate  stronghold. 
Following  the  retreating  enemy,  Sheridan  found  himself  again  at 
Booneville.  On  the  ist  of  July,  1862,  he  was  encamped  there,  while 
the  main  body  of  the  Confederates  lay  at  Tupelo  and  Guntown,  fifteen 
miles  or  more  to  the  southward. 

The  sluggish  advance  of  Halleck's  army  left  Sheridan's  force  isolated. 
Though  nominally  in  command  of  the  Second  Brigade  of  the  cavalry 
division,  his  force  at  Booneville  consisted  of  but  eleven  companies  of  the 
Second  Michigan  and  eleven  of  the  Second  Iowa  —  in  all,  about  seven 
hundred  and  forty  men.  With  the  main  army  under  Halleck  twenty 
miles  in  the  rear,  and  Beauregard  about  the  same  distance  in  front, 
Sheridan  operated  in  a  hostile  country,  watching  and  reporting  every 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  53 

movement  of  the  enemy,  and  making  his  map  of  the  country  as  he 
marched. 

Booneville  is  a  small  town  on  the  Mobile  and  Ohio  railway.  Sit- 
uated at  the  conjunction  of  three  or  four  converging  highways,  it  was  a 
natural  vantage  point,  the  value  of  which  the  enemy  promptly  acknowl- 
eged  by  the  effort  he  made  to  dislodge  Sheridan  and  his  handful  of  cavalry. 
None  but  the  most  audacious  would,  under  the  circumstances,  have 
dreamed  of  holding  the  place  unless  assured  of  a  large  command. 
There  were  deep  woods  which  covered  the  rolling  hills  on  the  imme- 
diate outskirts  of  the  place,  while  beyond,  cleared  plantations  gave  the 
enemy  admirable  ground  for  deploying  lines  of  battle  and  surrounding 
the  town. 

Beauregard  was  not  slow  in  discerning  the  poverty  of  the  force 
intrusted  with  such  important  functions  as  holding  forty  miles  of  debat- 
able territory.  So  long  as  Sheridan  held  Booneville,  many  miles  of 
country  with  abundant  supplies  and  many  needed  railway  facilities  were 
cut  off  from  his  control.  Sheridan's  forces,  his  resources,  to  the  minutest 
detail,  were  known  to  the  southern  commander,  for  every  man  in  the 
country  was  an  emissary  of  his  cause.  Taking  prompt  advantage  of 
the  situation,  General  Chalmers  —  a  man  destined  to  be  well  known  in 
war  and  politics  afterwards  —  was  placed  at  the  head  of  eight  regi- 
ments of  cavalry,  with  orders  to  clear  the  country  of  Sheridan's  meagre 
force. 

He  made  an  energetic  attempt  to  execute  these  orders.  The  dis- 
patches above  quoted  show  the  spirit  with  which  that  attempt  was 
resisted. 

Telegrams  like  these  were  something  new  at  headquarters  at  the 
time,  and  though  momentous  movements  under  Rosecrans,  Grant,  and 
Sherman  were  going  on,  the  outcome  of  Sheridan's  first  fight  was 
watched  with  eager  interest  by  Halleck,  and  the  result  thought  im- 
portant enough  to  be  telegraphed  to  President  Lincoln.  But  no 
soldiers  ever  better  deserved  commendation  than  did  this  little  band  for 
the  heroic  work  of  that  day. 

Unable  to  retreat  and  almost  hopeless  of  success,  Sheridan  when 
attacked,  made  his  dispositions  with  almost  preternatural  foresight.  The 
enemy  was  at  least  four  thousand  strong.  To  strike  this  large  force  en 
masse  would  have  been  certain  defeat.  That  was  not  the  new  colonel's 
plan.  He  strengthened  the  picket  posts  on  the  several  roads  leading 
into  Booneville  and  then  held  the  main  body  in  hand  to  await  Chalmers' 
attack.  This  fell  early  in  the  day  upon  Lieutenant  Scranton,  of  the 


^4  THE  LIFE  OF 

Second  Michigan,  who  commanded  the  outpost  on  the  Blackland  road, 
three  miles  and  a  half  from  the  town.  Although  set  upon  by  ten  times 
their  number,  the  pickets  fought  for  every  inch  of  the  ground,  falling 
back  so  slowly  that  the  enemy  supposed  they  had  come  upon  a  much 
larger  force  than  they  had  expected. 

Scranton's  men  had  retreated  a  mile  or  more  to  a  point  where  the 
road  the  enemy  were  advancing  on  intersected  another.  Here  Sheri- 
dan had  reinforcements  at  hand,  and,  under  cover  of  a  natural  barri- 
cade, the  attacking  force  was  brought  to  a  halt.  The  contest  became 
stubborn  and  the  fighting  superb,  but  finding  the  Confederates  gaining 
ground,  three  more  companies  were  sent  to  the  point,  under  command 
of  Captain  Campbell,  also  of  the  Second  Michigan.  Confident  now 
that  the  Union  force  was  at  bay,  Chalmers  deployed  two  regiments  on 
the  right  of  the  road.  This  imposing  line  overlapped  the  Union  front  so 
far  that  by  merely  curving  the  wings  inward,  the  whole  force  would 
have  been  surrounded.  Sheridan  saw  the  danger.  He  quickly  sent 
word  to  Captain  Campbell  to  hold  the  ground  at  all  hazards  until  he 
could  be  reinforced,  but  if  pushed  beyond  endurance  to  fall  back  slowly. 
Colonel  Hatch,  of  the  Second  Iowa,  was  then  sent  quickly  to  Camp- 
bell's support  and  was  ordered  to  charge  the  enemy  wherever  he  could 
strike  him  best.  Meanwhile  the  Michigan  men  were  engaged  in  a  terri- 
ble and  uncertain  combat.  In  the  open  field  the  gray-coated  horsemen 
in  well-closed  ranks,  waited  until  the  skirmishers  had  driven  the  Union 
troops  well  together,  then,  with  shouts,  they  swept  down,  each  man 
eager  to  be  first  in  at  the  capture. 

The  sorely  pressed  Federals  were  ordered  to  reserve  their  fire  until 
the  enemy  was  within  twenty-five  or  thirty  yards'  range,  and  well  did 
they  obey  this  command.  On  came  the  solid  Confederate  battalions, 
certain  of  victory,  and  the  order  to  surrender  was  ringing  out.  A  storm 
of  bullets  which  withered  the  first  line,  was  the  reply.  Another  and 
another  followed,  for  the  smallness  of  the  Union  force  was,  to  some 
extent,  made  up  by  their  efficient  Colt's  revolving  rifles,  which  carried 
five  shots  without  reloading,  and  in  the  hands  of  good  marksmen  were 
full  of  death. 

In  this  onset  they  were  so  well  used  that  the  charge  was  stayed. 
But  the  columns  were  soon  re-formed,  and  the  Confederate  commander 
closed  up  his  lines  and  brought  them  on  the  flank  of  the  struggling 
Wolverenes.  Still  fighting,  inch  by  inch,  they  fell  slowly  back,  keeping 
at  bay  the  overwhelming  enemy.  Again  Chalmers  threw  his  regi- 
ments in  line  and  charged  with  wild  yells  as  of  assured  victory.  But 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 


he  was  again  beat- 
en off,  and  the 
Union  men  hav- 
ing no  time  to  re- 
load, used  their 
guns  as  clubs  to 
ward  off  their 
over-confident  en- 
emies. It  was  a 
desperate  mo- 
ment. Sheer 
weight  of  num- 
bers must  have 
gained  the  covet- 
ed road  and  cap- 
tured the  indomit- 
able defenders 
had  Sheridan  not 
now  sent  in  an- 
other timely  sup- 
ply of  men  from 
his  slender  line. 

The  combat  be- 
gan again.    It  had 

lasted  from  daylight.  It  was  now  afternoon.  Angered  by  the  obsti- 
nacy of  his  opponents,  Chalmers  now  made  a  wide  sweep  and  came 
in  on  the  left  of  the  Union  camp,  almost  within  gun-shot  of  the  tents. 
There  was  no  sign  of  reinforcements  by  rail,  for  which  Sheridan  had 
asked.  There  was  hardly  a  hope  of  holding  out  another  hour  against 
such  disproportionate  numbers.  Still  there  was  no  thought  of  giving 
up,  and  the  young  colonel  resolved  "  to  eke  out  the  lion's  skin  with 
the  fox's  tail."  But  his  resources  were  wofully  slender  for  either  valor 
or  strategy  ;  yet,  meagre  as  they  were,  they  sufficed  him.  While  2,000 
Confederates  were  besetting  the  400  men  on  the  Blackland  road,  and 
2,000  more  were  swinging  into  line  at  the  very  gates  of  the  camp  on 
the  east,  Sheridan  hurried  to  the  tent  of  Captain  Alger,  who  was 
lying  sick  with  camp  fever.  The  situation  was  made  known  to  him 
and  he  was  asked  if  he  would  take  charge  of  a  desperate  venture.  He 
readily  agreed  to  do  his  share  in  the  crisis,  and  never  did  soldier  do 
his  duty  better. 


GEN.  J.  R.  CHALMERS,  OF   MISSISSIPPI. 


^6  THE  LIFE  OF 

Sheridan  bad  already  parked  his  wagon  train  on  the  low  ground  to 
thevwest  and  north  of  the  town,  and  prepared  for  a  last  desperate  stand. 
Besides  this,  he  had  hurried  two  companies  into  line,  one  from  the 
Second  Michigan  and  one  from  the  Second  Iowa.  There  were  ninety- 
two  men  in  all  in  this  little  band,  which  he  intrusted  to  Captain  Alger 
upon  as  mad  an  exploit  as  was  ever  known  in  war.  To  better  inspire  the 
men  with  the  spirit  of  rivalry,  he  had  taken  one  company  from  each  reg- 
iment in  his  command,  instead  of  taking  both  companies  from  the  same 
regiment.  When  Alger  was  mounted,  Sheridan  directed  him  to  move 
off  to  the  right  and  strike  the  enemy  in  the  rear.  To  this  officer  he 
spoke  privately  of  the  desperate  risks  to  be  taken,  and  indicated  the 
exact  moment  at  which  he  should  strike  the  rear  of  the  enemy.  He 
was  to  leave  Booneville  by  a  wood  road  running  westward.  After  a 
mile  or  more,  he  would  reach  a  point  in  a  covered  lane  where  an  old 
negro  would  be  found  to  guide  him  to  the  point  of  attack.  Sheridan's 
instructions  were  .so  minute,  and  he  showed  such  perfect  familiarity  with 
the  country,  that  he  inspired  unusual  confidence  in  the  officer  to  whom 
he  had  intrusted  this  dangerous  errand. 

Thus  early  in  Sheridan's  career,  did  he  give  evidence  of  that  won- 
derful power  which  is  the  keynote  to  his  success  as  a  soldier.  Short  as 
had  been  his  stay  in  Booneville,  he  knew  more  of  the  country  than  the 
rebels  themselves.  Like  Napoleon,  he  made  it  his  first  duty  to  memo- 
rize every  foot  of  the  territory  that  he  might  be  called  upon  to  defend 
or  contest.  All  capable  soldiers'do  this  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  but 
some  have  the  geographical  faculty  better  developed  than  others. 
Sheridan,  as  all  his  campaigns  attest,  had  this  important  gift.  He  had 
not  been  twenty-four  hours  at  Booneville  before  he  had  mapped  in  his 
mind  every  road,  lane,  farm,  hill,  or  natural  impediment  that  might 
play  an  important  part  in  action.  It  was  during  a  visit  to  the  neighbor- 
hood of  Waterloo,  long  before  he  confronted  Napoleon,  that  Wellington 
owed  his  escape  from  the  French  after  his  defeat  at  Quatre  Bras.  Given 
equal  numbers  in  combat,  the  man  who  knows  his  map  best  is  almost 
certain  to  win  the  battle.  Sheridan  knew  his  by  heart.  He  knew  the 
character  of  the  people  and  the  nature  of  all  his  surroundings.  The 
attack  he  was  now  called  upon  to  resist,  found  him  thoroughly  equipped 
with  every  possible  resource,  except  men,  that  the  craft  and  energy  of 
a  soldier  could  command. 

Besides  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  country,  he  had  a  trusty  scout 
who  lived  in  the  neighborhood  —  a  light-complexioned,  long-haired 
Mississippian,  with  a  keen  eye  and  cadaverous  form.  Reticent  and 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  57 

modest,  this  partisan  had  the  confidence  of  both  officers  and  men.  To 
him  was  intrusted  the  conduct  of  Captain  Alger's  "forlorn  hope"  to 
the  rendezvous  where  the  negro  waited.  Nothing  was  left  to  chance. 
Captain  Alger  knew  that  the  salvation  of  the  whole  command  depended 
upon  his  courage,  activity,  and  vigor.  Perhaps  it  was  just  as  well  that 
the  men  did  not  appreciate  the  madness  of  the  undertaking.  It  takes 
more  than  ordinary  courage  for  ninety-two  men  to  assault  4,000,  espe- 
cially when,  as  in  this  case,  every  chance  was  against  them.  They  were 
to  traverse  an  unknown  country  by  divers  roads,  through  deep  woods, 
and  they  were  to  meet  at  the  end  of  the  march  an  overwhelming  enemy, 
in  the  midst  of  a  treacherous  population. 

In  this  fearful  emergency  tactics  and  dash  were  the  two  important 
requisites  of  success.  There  must  be  no  mistake  as  to  the  one  and  no 
lack  of  the  other.  As  the  men  moved  off,  Sheridan  said  to  Captain 
Alger : 

"  Don't  dismount  your  men  in  any  event !  Don't  deploy  them,  or 
you  will  show  the  enemy  the  weakness  of  your  force.  Charge  in  column, 
and  if  possible,  come  through  and  join  me.  When  you  make  the 
assault,  shout  and  make  all  the  noise  possible.  When  I  hear  you  I  will 
strike  them  in  front.  I  have  carefully  gauged  the  time,  and  whether  I 
hear  from  you  or  not,  in  one  hour  I  shall  charge  them." 

There  were  no  cheers  as  the  little  band  filed  off  through  the  deserted 
streets  ;  no  outward  sign  that  the  sorely  pressed  commander  was  taking 
his  last  desperate  chance  for  success.  In  the  woods  to  the  south  and 
east  the  volleys  still  rang  out  defiantly  ;  but  the  deliberation  of  the  rebels 
showed  that  they  were  confident  of  capturing  the  town  and  its  defenders. 
With  this  possibility  staring  the  "  forlorn  hope"  in  the  face,  it  moved 
through  the  solemn  pines,  beyond  the  dark  marshes,  and  over  narrow 
plantation  roads,  the  commander  and  his  men  impressed  with  the  im- 
portance of  the  stroke  they  were  to  deal.  It  was  an  hour  of  terrible 
suspense,  but  the  scout  knows  his  road,  and  all  comes  to  pass  as 
Sheridan  had  planned.  At  the  appointed  place  the  negro  is  found,  and 
under  orders  of  Captain  Alger,  he  guides  them  onward.  The. column 
has  now  turned  eastward  and  is  now  moving  upon  the  rear  of  the  enemy. 
Every  instant  it  draws  nearer  and  nearer.  Now  comes  the  supreme 
moment.  The  troopers  emerge  from  the  sheltering  woods.  They  are 
under  the  eyes  of  the  compact  masses  of  gray  troopers  that  line  the 
crest  of  the  hill.  The  negro  guide  takes  fright  and  runs  away. 

"  Forward  men  !  "  Captain  Alger  commands. 

In  column  of  fours  the  audacious  handful  rush  up  the  Blackland 


58  THE  LIFE  OF 

road  from  a  point  where  the  Confederates  had  never  dreamed  of  the 
presence  of  an  enemy.  In  an  instant  they  are  in  the  group  about  the 
commander's  headquarters.  But  there  Is  no  time  for  spoils,  not  even 
for  prisoners.  Beyond  the  hill  is  the  point  of  attack.  At  the  main  line 
Alger  dashes,  leaving  Captain  Schuyler  to  look  after  those  in  and  to 
the  left  of  the  road. 

All  this  time  Sheridan  had  been  counting  the  minutes.  Each  one 
seemed  an  hour.  Human  endurance  was  taxed  to  the  uttermost.  The 
young  colonel  was  now  realizing  for  the  first  time  the  intensity  of 
Wellington's  longing  at  Waterloo  : 

"  Oh  for  night  or  Blucher  !  " 

The  hour  had  nearly  passed  and  Captain  Alger  had  given  no  sign. 
The  enemy's  line  to  the  east  was  now  deploying  to  surround  the  wagons, 
and  the  fire  to  the  south  was  increasing. 

Where  was  Alger?  There  were  no  shots,  no  shouts  ;  none  of  the 
clamor  that  usually  accompanies  the  onsets  of  cavalrymen. 

True  to  his  promise,  when  the  hand  pointed  to  the  last  moment 
of  the  hour,  Sheridan  prepared  for  the  charge.  Just  as  he  moved 
out  for  the  final  stroke,  a  train  of  cars  came  down  the  railway  and  drew 
into  Booneville,  sounding  its  shrill  whistle  as  a  warning,  and  a  welcome 
to  those  who  were  in  battle.  Every  one  in  the  Union  lines  knew  that 
Sheridan  had  sent  for  reinforcements,  and  the  arrival  of  the  train  thrilled 
the  struggling  soldiers  with  a  new  hope.  They  began  to  cheer,  and  the 
train  men  joined  with  a  will.  Sheridan  made  prompt  use  of  the  timely 
incident.  He  sent  word  to  the  engineer  to  keep  up  whistling,  and  to 
the  train  hands  to  cheer  and  make  such  clatter  as  would  imply  fresh 
men.  The  civilians  took  the  hint.  There  was  a  pandemonium  of  yells 
and  huzzas. 

At  this  moment  Sheridan  swung  his  tired  battalions  into  line.  The 
men  caught  the  inspiration  of  their  commander  and  felt  with  him  the 
responsibilities  of  the  moment.  Haifa  mile  in  front  of  them  were  the 
gray  masses,  moving  in  and  out  in  busy  preparation  for  the  final  onset. 

The  scene  on  both  sides  was  a  spirited  one,  and  to  the  Federal 
troops  the  moment  was  big  with  fate.  But  there  was  no  time  for 
reflection.  Sheridan  is  in  front.  He  shouts  to  his  troops  "  Forward  !  " 
The  squadrons  sweep  across  the  fields  in  close  order.  As  they  draw 
near,  dropping  shots  from  the  Confederate  artillery  and  carbines  empty 
a  saddle  here  and  there.  Still  on  they  go.  No  one  has  thought  for 
anything  but  the  enemy.  The  excitement  of  the  charge  thrills  every 
nerve.  The  lust  of  battle  shines  in  every  eye.  They  draw  closer  and 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 


GEN.  R.  A.  ALGER,  OF  MICHIGAN. 

[from  a  Recent  Photograph^ 

closer  to  the  foe.  Each  blue-coat  singles  out  his  man,  and  with  a  crash 
as  of  meeting  waters,  and  a  yell  as  of  contending  demons,  the  two 
forces  come  together.  The  Confederate  line  wavers  and  then  breaks 
before  the  force  of  Sheridan's  first  charge. 

At  this  instant  Alger's  handful  of  men  rushed  upon  the  Confederate 
rear.  The  attack  was  so  unexpected  that  they  were  thrown  into  utter 
confusion.  They  broke  at  every  point.  Audacity  and  courage  had 
won.  But  danger  to  the  "  forlorn  hope  "  was  not  yet  past.  Sheridan 
had  not  seen  nor  heard  of  it,  but  the  enemy  had.  Alger  was  not  within 
u  yelling"  distance  of  his  commander  when  he  attacked.  His  force 
had  made  noise  enough,  but  it  had  all  been  drowned  in  the  horrible 
confusion  of  the  moment.  The  tumult  of  his  own  movement  had 


60  THE  LIFE  OF 

drowned  all  the  rest  of  the  battle  to  Sheridan's  ears.  He  knew  that 
the  Confederate  masses  had  broken  in  front  of  him,  but  he  could  not  tell 
whether  the  shouts  he  heard  were  Confederate  or  Union.  He  pushed 
on  to  see.  Soon  the  situation  was  under  his  eye.  His  stratagem  had 
been  successful.  The  "forlorn  hope"  had  done  its  work  and  done  it 
well,  but  in  the  confusion  of  the  moment  it  was  in  a  desperate  scramble 
with  the  flying  Confederates.  It  was  still  beyond  the  reach  of  aid  from 
Sheridan,  and  in  a  running  fight  with  the  enemy.  As  the  Confederates 
broke  to  the  rear,  they  tried  in  their  flight  to  punish  the  force  in  its  way 
for  its  temerity.  In  the  melee  which  then  ensued  each  side  sought  to  do 
all  the  damage  it  could  to  the  other,  while  getting  out  of  danger  itself. 
Alger  and  his  little  command  were  rushing  to  the  rear  with  as  much 
speed  as  their  enemy.  They  had  emptied  their  revolvers  into  a  con- 
fused mass  of  Confederates  which  they  had  driven  oft'  by  the  roadside. 
Their  ammunition  was  gone  and  they  plied  the  sabre  unsparingly. 
The  Confederates  were  now  on  an  equality  with  them,  and  in  point  of 
numbers,  vastly  their  superior.  But  they  pushed  off  the  field,  fighting 
as  they  ran.  The  race  was  a  singular  one,  but  serious  as  it  was,  it  had 
its  ludicrous  aspects.  Each  side  was  trying  to  get  away  from  the  other 
and  man  by  man  they  separated  whenever  a  by-road  or  a  bit  of  woods 
opened  a  chance  for  escape.  Many  a  hand-to-hand  conflict  took  place. 
Alger  rode  for  half  a  mile  side  by  side  with  a  Confederate  soldier,  each 
emptying  his  revolver  at  the  other  without  doing  any  injury.  Just  as 
Alger  had  finished  his  last  shot,  he  was  carried,  partly  by  the  antics  of 
his  fractious,  lank,  gray  hors$,  so  familiar  to  the  men  of  his  command, 
and  partly  by  the  rush  of  those  about  him,  beyond  his  own  forces 
and  into  the  timber,  where  the  enemy  were  seeking  shelter.  His  horse, 
now  unmanageable,  ran  through  the  clustering  branches,  until  a  limb 
tore  the  luckless  rider  from  his  saddle,  breaking  his  ribs  as  he  swung 
violently  against  the  tree.  He  had  barely  strength  to  parry  a  vicious 
blow  from  a  flying  cavalryman,  as  he  fell  into  the  thick  underbrush, 
unconscious.  How  long  he  lay  there  he  never  knew  ;  but  when  he 
recovered  consciousness,  all  was  quiet  about  him.  The  Confederates 
had  disappeared  and  so  had  his  own  command.  He  dragged  himself 
from  his  shelter,  crawled  to  the  road,  and  had  entered  an  open  field 
when  the  clatter  of  horses'  hoofs  reached  his  ears.  He  thought  it  was  the 
enemy's  forces,  and  again  concealed  himself.  But  as  they  neared  him 
he  recognized  them.  They  were  from  the  Second  Iowa.  Sheridan 
had  sent  them  out  to  seek  for  his  body,  for  it  was  thought  that  he  had 
been  killed.  Indeed,  a  number  of  the  men  having  seen  his  helpless 
plight  in  the  wild  stampede,  had  reported  him  dead  or  captured.  They 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  61 

put  him  on  a  horse  and  returned  to  camp.     It  was  after  dark  when 
Sheridan  greeted  him  with  "  Old  fellow,  you  have  done  well." 

Then  the  two  sat  down  to  talk  over  the  incidents  of  the  remarkable 
engagement.  Captain  Alger  lost  more  than  half  of  his  command,  and 
the  Confederates  were  many  more  men  short  from  the  effects  of  Sheri- 
dan's first  charge. 

o 

This  day's  work  made  Sheridan  a  brigadier-general  before  he  had  . 
even  been  commissioned  a  colonel.  Captain  Alger  was  promoted  to 
the  rank  of  major  for  his  gallant  leadership  of  the  "forlorn  hope."  It 
was  a  great  day's  work  for  both  officers  and  men,  and  not  only  his  own 
regiment,  but  the  whole  army  was  taught  a  wholesome  respect  for  the 
soldierly  qualities  of  Sheridan. 

That  the  achievement  is  not  unduly  magnified  in  this  narration  the 
orders  of  the  commanders  will  bear  witness  : 

General  Orders,  No  81.  ~\ 

HEADQUARTERS  ARMY  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI,  July  2,  1862.  ] 
The  General  commanding  announces  to  this  army  that  on  the  ist  instant, 
Colonel  P.  H.  Sheridan,  Second  Michigan  Cavalry,  with  eleven  companies  of 
his  own  men  and  eleven  of  the  Second  Iowa  Cavalry,  was  attacked  at  Booneville 
by  eight  regiments  of  rebel  cavalry,  under  General  Chalmers,  and  after  an  eight 
hours'  fight,  drove  them  back,  leaving  their  dead  and  wounded  on  the  field. 
The  coolness,  determination  and  fearless  gallantry  displayed  by  Colonel  Sheri- 
dan and  the  officers  and  men  of  his  command,  deserve  the  thanks  and  admira- 
tion of  the  army.  W.  S.  ROSECRANS,  Major- General. 

Telegram. 

CORINTH,  July  6,  1862. 
Secretary  of  War: 

Official  report  is  just  received  of  a  brilliant  affair  of  our  cavalry  near  Boone- 
ville, Miss.,  on  the  ist  instant.  Colonel  Sheridan  with  two  regiments  — 728 
men  —  was  attacked  by  parts  of  eight  regiments,  numbering  4,700  men,  which 
he  defeated  and  drove  back  after  eight  hours'  fighting.  Our  losses,  forty-one 
killed  and  wounded  and  missing.  That  of  the  enemy  must  have  been  very 

freat.     He  left  sixty-five  dead  on  the  field.     I  respectfully  recommend  Colonel 
heridan  for  gallant  conduct  in  battle. 

H.  W.  HALLECK,  Major-General. 

Trifling  events  often  exercise  a  powerful  influence  upon  each  man's 
life.  This  little  fight  made  known  Sheridan's  powers  and  had  a 
more  important  bearing  upon  his  future  than  many  a  greater  engage- 
ment in  which  he  handled  an  army  corps.  Then  it  was  his  first  chance. 
Had  he  missed,  who  can  say  what  his  after  record  would  have  been? 
These  cold  facts  but  faintly  portray  the  actual  work  of  the  day  when 
Sheridan  fought  his  first  battle  ;  but  they  state  the  beginning  of  a  won- 
derful career  in  war,  and  insignificant  as  they  may  seem  in  the  light  of 
the  mighty  operations  which  followed  in  quick  succession,  make  mani- 
fest the  points  of  military  genius  upon  which  a  great  career  has  been 
founded. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


A  NEW  COMMAND. 

TRANSFERRED  TO  THE  INFANTRY  —  A  HIGHER  COMMAND  BUT  LESS  CONGENIAL 
SERVICE — THE  BATTLES  OF  CORINTH  AND  IUKA  —  MAKING  THE  MOST  OF 
SMALL  OPPORTUNITY  —  TRANSFER  TO  GENERAL  BUELL*S  ARMY  —  COMMAND- 
ING A  DIVISION  AT  PERRYVILLE —  SAVING  LOOMIS'  BATTERY  —  BRINGING 
VICTORY  OUT  OF  DEFEAT. 

AFTER  Booneville,  what?  It  was  a  swift  leap  to  a  soldier's  fame, 
but  it  was  one  well  won  and  thoroughly  deserved.  Six  weeks  of 
marching  and  fighting  made  the  captain  and  commissary  an  acting 
colonel  of  cavalry  and  a  brigadier-general  in  prospective,  recommended 
with  unusual  earnestness  by  the  most  critical  and  cold-blooded  of  com- 
manding generals,  Henry  Wager  Halleck.  Sheridan's  position  was  a 
unique  one.  His  commission  was  that  of  captain  in  the  Thirteenth 
Infantry,  U.  S.  A.  He  was  detailed  to  General  Halleck's  staff  as  chief 
commissary,  and  while  so  acting  was  appointed  colonel  of  the  Second 
Regiment  of  Cavalry,  Michigan  Volunteers,  by  Governor  Austin  Blair. 
He  took  command  immediately,  was  never  mustered  in  as  colonel,  and 
did  not  receive  his  state  commission  till  after  the  war  closed.  Within 
twenty-four  hours  after  the  governor's  appointment  was  received,  the 
new  commander  was  in  the  saddle,  raiding  and  fighting  along  the  line 
of  the  Mobile  and  Ohio  railroad.  From  May  28th  the  service  was 
continuous  and  severe.  On  the  29th,  with  the  Second  Iowa  Cavalry, 
Sheridan  attacked  and  captured  Booneville.  The  next  day  Colonel 
Hatch  reports  him  detached  with  the  left  battalion  of  the  Second  Mich- 
igan to  raid  on  the  railroad  below  Booneville,  and  "do  as  much  dam- 
age as  possible."  This  was  the  first  of  the  memorable  raids  against 
railroad  communications,  which  of  themselves  make  so  famous  a  chap- 
ter in  the  history  of  the  Civil  War.  It  was  limited  in  area,  but  was  as 
damaging  as  to  extent  as  any  that  followed.  Its  effect  was  so  marked 
as  to  cause  General  Halleck  to  telegraph  on  the  4th  of  June  that  u  Colo- 
nel Sheridan,  Second  Michigan  Cavalry,  conducted  with  great  skill 
and  coolness  the  operations  of  his  command."  On  the  6th  Sheridan 


64  THE  LIFE  OF 

fought  a  sharp  and  successful  engagement  in  the  neighborhood  of  Bald- 
win, Miss.,  while  on  reconnaissance.  The  Confederate  command  out- 
numbered his  own  and  consisted  of  .a  .full  regiment  of  cavalry  and  an 
independent  Georgia  company.  Sheridan  met  them,  dismounted  five 
companies,  and  attacked  at  once,  driving  them  in  disorder  for  two 
miles,  and  capturing  several  prisoners,  having  but  one  man  severely 
wounded.  On  the  9th  of  June,  in  command  of  the  Second  Brigade  of 
cavalry,  he  entered  Baldwin  to  find  the  enemy  gone.  He  pushed 
southward  to  Guntown.  From  that  date  till  July  ist,  he  was  so  con- 
stantly on  the  move  that  the  Confederate  commanders  were  compelled 
to  take  vigorous  notice  of  his  audacity  and  activity.  As  already  nar- 
rated, General  Chalmers  was  sent  to  dislodge  him  at  Booneville. 
With  a  much  superior  force,  he  received  an  overwhelming  repulse. 
General  Halleck  at  once  recommended  the  little  trooper's  promotion 
as  brigadier-general.  He  was  assigned  to  the  command  of  a  brigade, 
and  remained  in  that  enlarged  sphere  of  duty  without  receiving  his 
commission.  Probably  no  other  officer  in  the  Union  army  could  have 
shown  a  similar  record — that  of  commanding  as  colonel  and  brigadier, 
a  regiment,  brigade,  and  division,  while  actually  commissioned  and 
legally  ranking  only  as  a  captain  of  infantry  in  the  regular  army. 

The  dispatches  to  and  from  Booneville  on  the  ist  and  2d  of  July, 
as  well  as  those  sent  by  his  commanding  officers,  illustrate  all  the 
qualities  which,  on  larger  fields,  afterwards  compelled  his  recognition 
as  the  most  masterly  cavalry  commander  of  the  century.  To  General 
Asboth,  the  old  Hungarian-American  soldier  who  bore  himself  so 
well  in  our  western  campaigns,  Sheridan  telegraphed  on  the  ist  of 
July  for  reinforcements,  saying  :  "  I  am  still  holding  them."  He  had  a 
large  number  of  prisoners,  and  held  on  to  them.  "  This  is  my  third  dis- 
patch. I  am  still  holding  my  camp."  At  5  P.  M.,  however,  he  sends 
his  fourth  dispatch  saying:  "I  will  not  want  any  infantry  support. 
I  have  whipped  the  enemy.  ...  I  have  lost  some  fine  officers 
and  men,  but  have  hurt  the  enemy  badly.  It  would  be  well  to  let 
me  have  a  battery  of  artillery.  I  might  then  be  able  to  follow  up 
the  enemy."  Next  morning  at  9.30  A.  M.,  he  informs  Asboth  "that 
the  enemy  had  skedaddled."  Chalmer's  force  consisted  of  ten  regi- 
ments ;  Sheridan's  of  two.  Rosecrans,  who  commanded  the  wing  of 
the  Union  army  before  Corinth,  with  which  the  Second  Michigan  Cav- 
alry was  brigaded,  telegraphs  Halleck,  on  the  zd  of  July,  an  account 
of  the  fight,  and  adds  :  "•  I  have  issued  an  order  complimenting  Sheri- 
dan and  his  command.  More  cavalry  massed  under  such  an  officer 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  65 

would  be  of  great  use  to  us.  Sheridan  ought  to  be  made  a  brigadier. 
He  would  not  be  a  stampeding  general."  And  he  never  was  except 
to  the  enemy  he  encountered. 

On  the  6th  of  July,  General  Halleck  asked  for  Sheridan's  promotion. 
The  gallant  little  cavalryman  remained  at  Booneville  in  command 
of  the  Second  Brigade,  and  the  records  are  full  of  proofs  of  his  cease- 
less activity.  His  scouting  service  was  admirably  organized,  and,  as 
always  thereafter,  he  showed  his  striking  capacity  for  gaining  a  com- 
plete topographical  knowledge  of  the  ground  over  which  he  was  or  ex- 
pected to  be  operating.  In  order  to  apprehend  with  clearness  the  value 
of  such  an  officer  as  Sheridan  at  that  date  and  at  the  posts  he  was 
occupying,  it  must  be  remembered  that  Corinth  in  Northern  Missis- 
sippi was  the  most  important  railroad  post  of  the  central  region,  in 
which  Halleck's  forces  were  operating.  The  movements  of  Grant 
early  in  the  year  up  the  Tennessee  and  Cumberland  valleys,  resulting 
in  the  capture  of  Forts  Henry  and  Donelson,  led  to  the  great  two  days' 
conflict  at  Pittsburg  Landing  and  Shiloh.  It  was  primarily  a  flank 
movement  on  the  Confederate  positions  in  the  lower  Mississippi,  and  an 
attack  on  their  interior  and  central  lines.  Corinth  was  the  key  to  their 
interior  lines  of  railroad  transportation  and  supply.  It  reached  south- 
westwardly  to  Vicksburg  and  Port  Hudson,  and  eastwardly  to  Northern 
Alabama,  the  Valley  of  the  Tennessee,  Chattanooga,  and  the  mountain 
regions  of  Northern  Georgia  and  East  Tennessee.  Halleck,  in  assuming 
general  command  in  the  field  after  the  battle  of  Shiloh,  advanced  by 
"  trenches  and  parallels"  on  Corinth,  which  Beauregard  had  heavily  in- 
trenched. There  were  within  the  lines  of  investment  three  considerable 
Union  armies,  known  as  the  Tennessee,  Cumberland,  and  Ohio.  The 
best  and  ablest  soldiers  of  the  war,  all  things  considered,  were  grouped 
together  under  "Old  Brains,"  as  the  army  argol  had  already  named 
General  Halleck.  Besides  Grant  and  Sherman,  there  were  Rosecrans, 
Thomas,  Pope,  Buell,  Granger,  Stanley,  O.  M.  Mitchel,  Nelson, 
Logan,  Edward  McCook,  McClernand,  Grierson,  "Bob"  Mitchell, 
Wallace,  Asboth,  Blair,  Jeff.  C.  Davis,  and  a  score  of  others  who  already 
had  won  a  national  reputation.  There  were  a  hundred  more  —  restless, 
able,  devoted  —  who  were  pushing  to  the  front  rank.  Among  them  all, 
Sheridan  was  welcomed  from  the  first  as  an  equal,  and  by  the  majority 
also  a  coming  leader,  with  the  unmistakable  evidences,  in  his  bearing 
and  acts  of  a  brilliant  commander.  Against  or  about  him  there  has 
never,  from  first  to  last,  been  any  intrigues,  jealousies,  or  personal  hos- 
tilities. All  his  places  were  held  by  right  of  genius  and  its  compelling 
capacity. 


66  THE  LIFE  OF 

After  Corinth  was  evacuated  by  Beauregard  it  was  occupied  by 
our  troops.  It  must  be  remembered  that  Sheridan's  earliest  opera- 
tions were  designed  to  break  up  BeauYegard's  communications,  and 
that  they  were  so  far  successful  as  to  compel  his  speedier  withdrawal 
from  a  post  threatened  with  isolation.  The  Confederates  were  at  once 
obliged  to  begin  active  operations  for  its  recapture,  and  their  move- 
ments brought  to  the  front  Halleck's  well-devised  plan  of  campaign. 
Grant's  and  Rosecrans'  parts  of  it  resulted  successfully,  first  in  de- 
feating, in  the  late  summer  and  fall  of  1862,  all  the  Confederate  efforts 
to  drive  the  Union  forces  from  their  "coigns  of  vantage"  in  Northern 
Mississippi  at  Corinth,  luka,  and  Holly  Springs,  with  the  intermediary 
position,  on  the  line  those  points  represent.  Later  and  in  the  earlier 
part  of  1863,  this  occupancy  led  the  way  to  the  successful  land  advance 
on  Vicksburg,  thus  inaugurating  the  great  campaign  which  ended,  July 
4th,  in  the  surrender  of  that  fortress,  and  in  the  clearing  of  the  valley 
of  the  Mississippi,  so  that  its  fc4  waters  ran  unvext  to  the  sea."  East  of 
Corinth  Halleck's  plan  involved  the  clearing  of  Kentucky  and  Middle 
Tennessee,  the  holding  of  Northern  Alabama,  and  the  definite  and 
speedy  advance  of  the  Army  of  the  Ohio  on  to  Chattanooga,  to  be  fol- 
lowed by  the  occupation  of  East  Tennessee.  How  the  success  of  this 
portio.n  of  Halleck's  plans  was  hindered  will  hereafter  be  seen. 

Colonel  Sheridan  remained  at  Booneville  after  the  battle  of  July  ist. 
His  next  important  movement  was  an  extended  scout,  during  which  a 
Confederate  mail  carrier  was  captured  writh  thirty  letters.  After  this 
affair,  which  had  important  results,  Generals  Rosecrans,  Sullivan, 
Granger,  Elliott,  and  Asboth  then  united  in  a  telegraphic  dispatch  to 
General  Halleck,  urging  Sheridan's  promotion  as  brigadier,  declaring 
that  he  "4is  worth  his  weight  in  gold."  His  own  and  commanding 
officers'  reports  are  full  of  the  successes  he  daily  chronicled.  On  the 
27th  of  July  Sheridan  attacked  Ripley  in  three  directions.  He  drove  a 
force  of  600  into  the  post  on  the  morning  of  the  29th  —  the  day  on 
which  he  asked  to  be  relieved  because  there  was,  nothing  for  him  to  do. 
The  town  was  taken  on  the  morning  of  the  3Oth.  His  promotion  was 
asked  by  all  his  immediate  commanders.  On  the  loth  of  August,  after 
days  of  intermittent  skirmishing,  he  was  found  encamped  between 
Rienzi  and  Booneville.  On  the  I4th  he  seized  Elliston  and  Baldwin 
and  burned  the  depot  of  supplies.  He  was  kept  busy  skirmishing 
with  the  enemy  between  Ripley  and  Rienzi.  On  the  26th  of  August 
he  encountered  a  large  guerrilla  force,  and  General  Granger  reports : 
41  The  race  and  drubbing  Sheridan  gave  them  was  the  most  disgraceful 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  67 

rout  and  scatteration  that  I  ever  heard  of."  It  would  be  useless  to 
punctuate  these  pages  with  the  daily  details  of  his  actions.  Though 
impatient  for  his  brigadier's  commission,  he  was  not  destined  to  receive 
it  till  the  early  part  of  September.  The  promotion  was  still  pending, 
when  on  the  4th  of  that  month.  Colonel  Sheridan  was  relieved  by  Gen- 
eral Granger,  under  orders  from  General  Halleck,  of  the  command  of  the 
Second  Brigade,  Cavalry  Division,  of  the  Army  of  the  Mississippi.  He 
was  immediately  ordered  to  report  to  Louisville,  where  General  Marcus 
D.  Wright  was  engaged  in  organizing  and  forwarding  troops  for  the 
purpose  of  driving  Morgan,  Bragg,  and  other  Confederate  commanders 
out  of  Kentucky,  preparatory  to  an  endeavor  to  again  attempt  the 
execution  of  Halleck's  plan  for  an  attack  on  Chattanooga.  Andrew 
Johnson  was  at  Nashville  as  military  governor  of  Tennessee,  quarrel- 
ing savagely  with  Buell's  representatives,  Assistant  Adjutant-General 
Greene  and  Colonel  Stanley  Matthew  (now  Associate  Justice  of  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court),  who  was  acting  as  provost  marshal. 
General  T.  J.  Boyle,  assigned  to  recruiting  Kentucky  Union  troops  was 
assuming  to  be  in  full  command  of  that  state.  General  Don  Carlos  Buell 
was  apparently  wasting  precious  time  in  disciplining  Union  command- 
ers and  their  troops,  who  persisted  in  believing  that  a  Confederate 
in  Kentucky  was  as  much  their  enemy  as  one  in  Alabama  or  Missis- 
sippi. General  Ormsby  M.  Mitchel,  the  learned  astronomer,  who 
proved  himself  so  capable  and  brilliant  a  commander,  was  holding 
Huntsville  and  a  large  section  of  Northern  Alabama,  repairing  rail- 
roads, righting  constant  series  of  little  battles  over  a  great  area,  watch- 
ing fords,  gathering  and  forwarcling  supplies,  and  generally  doing 
the  most  useful  work,  if  not  that  which  wins  the  loudest  praise,  that  a 
great  forward  movement  necessarily  involves.  It  was  into  this  great 
field,  where  the  abler  Confederate  commanders  of  that  date  —  Bragg, 
Kirby  Smith,  Polk,  Hardee,  Sterling  Price,  Van  Dorn,  etc., — were 
moving  vigorously  to  retain*  their  foothold  in  the  Central  South,  that 
Sheridan  found  himself  projected.. 

On  the  date  of  being  relieved  of  the  command  at  Booneville, 
Mississippi,  —  September  4th  —  Colonel  Sheridan  with  his  regiment  and 
two  batteries,  Hescock's  and  Barnet's,  was  ordered  to  Louisville.  Gen- 
eral Halleck  at  this  date  was  in  Washington,  assigned  to  duty  as  Gen- 
eral-in-Chief. On  the  1 2th  Major-General  Marcus  D.  Wright  and 
Brigadier-General  Gordon  Granger  telegraphed  from  Cincinnati : 

44  We  have  no  good  generals  here,  and  are  badly  in  want  of  them. 
Sheridan  is  worth  his  weight  in  gold.  Will  you  not  try  and  have  him 
made  a  brigadier  at  once?  It  will  put  us  in  good  shape." 


68  THE  LIFE  OF 

Next  day,  General  Halleck  replied  that  Sheridan  had  been  reap- 
pointed,  with  his  original  date,  that  is,  of  the  battle  of  Booneville, 
July  rst,  1862.  This  was  the  first. 'in "a  line  of  promotions,  by  which 
every  commission  he  received,  except  the  last  —  that  of  General  — 
bore  the  date  of  a  victory.  He  had  two  in  the  volunteer  army,  five 
brevets  in  the  regular  army,  two  full  commissions  as  brigadier  and 
major-general  in  the  same,  before  the  war  closed,  and  two  as  lieuten- 
ant-general and  general,  since  its  close.  On  the  2yth  of  September, 
General  Wright  asked  Buell  for  Sheridan,  saying,  UI  need  him  very 
much,"  but  General  Buell  assigned  him  to  the  command  of  the  Elev- 
enth Division  in  the  Third  Corps  in  his  army. 

The  position  of  that  army  is  stated  in  General  Halleck's  testimony 
given  before  the  Military  Commission  which  investigated  General 
Buell's  conduct  of  the  campaign  that  closed  at  Perryville,  Kentucky. 
General  Halleck  left  for  Washington  to  serve  as  General-in-Chief,  and 
assumed  command  on  the  23d  of  July.  He  said  : 

"When  I  left  the  Department  of  the  Mississippi,  in  July  last,  the 
main  body  of  the  army,  under  Major-General  Buell,  was  between 
Huntsville  and  Stephenson,  moving  toward  Chattanooga,  for  which 
place  they  had  left  Corinth  about  the  loth  of  June. 

"  Major-General  Curtis'  forces  were  at  Helena,  Arkansas,  and 
those  under  Brigadier-General  Schofield,  were  in  Southwest  Missouri. 
The  central  army,  under  Major-General  Grant,  occupying  the  line  of 
Western  Tennessee  and  Northern  Mississippi,  extended  from  Mem- 
phis to  luka,  and  protected  the  railroads  from  Columbus,  Kentucky, 
south,  which  were  their  one,  only  channel  of  supply.  These  several 
armies  —  spread  along  a  line  of  some  six  hundred  miles,  from  the  west- 
ern borders  of  Arkansas  to  Cumberland  Gap,  and  occupying  a  strip  of 
country  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  in  width,  from  which 
the  enemy's  forces  had  recently  been  expelled  — were  rapidly  decreasing 
in  strength,  from  the  large  number  of  soldiers  sent  home  on  account  of 
real  or  pretended  disability.  On  the  other  hand,  the  enemy's  armies 
were  greatly  increased  by  a  rigidly  enforced  conscription.  With  their 
great  numbers  and  discipline,  they  boldly  determined  to  re-occupy 
Arkansas,  Missouri,  Tennessee,  East  Kentucky,  and,  if  possible,  to 
invade  the  states  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois,  while  our  attention  was 
distracted  by  the  invasion  of  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania,  and  an  ex- 
tended Indian  insurrection  on  the  western  frontiers. 

"  This  plan  had  very  many  chances  of  success,  but  the  timely  order 
of  the  President,  of  August  4th,  calling  for  additional  forces  and  the 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 


69 


patriotic  response  of 
the  people  of  the 
Northwest,  thwarted 
these  plans.  General 
Bragg  suddenly 
transferred  a  large 
part  of  his  army 
from  Tupelo,  Mis- 
sissippi, through  the 
states  of  Alabama 
and  Georgia,  reached 
Chattanooga  in  ad- 
vance of  General 
Buell,  turned  his  left, 
and  rapidly  crossing 
the  state  of  Tennes- 
see entered  Kentucky 
by  Mumfordsville 
and  Lebanon. 

"General  Buell 
fell  back  upon  Nash- 
ville without  giving 
the  enemy  battle ; 
then  followed,  or  rather  moved  parallel  with,  Bragg,  who  after  captur- 
ing our  garrison  at  Mumfordsville,  turned  oft  from  the  main  road  to 
Louisville,  along  which  General  Buell  passed,  the  latter  reaching  Louis- 
ville without  any  engagement. 

"Another  column  of  the  enemy  had  moved  from  East  Tennessee, 
after  blockading  Cumberland  Gap,  upon  Lexington,  and  threatened 
Cincinnati.  A  small  force  of  our  raw  troops,  which  had  been  pushed 
forward  to  Richmond,  Kentucky,  under  Major-General  Nelson,  were 
met  by  the  enemy  and  completely  routed. 

"Major-General  Buell  left  Louisville  on  the  ist  of  October,  with 
an  army  of  100,000  men,  in  pursuit  of  General  Bragg." 

The  Military  Commission  found,  among  other  things,  that  the 
enforced  repair  by  Buell's  command,  under  Halleck's  orders,  of  the 
Memphis  and  Charleston  railroad  from  Corinth  to  Decatur,  Alabama, 
for  use  as  a  line  of  supply,  occupied  time  to  little  or  no  purpose, 
and  delayed  Buell  so  much  as  to  give  Bragg  the  opportunity  to  oc- 
cupy and  concentrate  at  Chattanooga  before  the  Union  general.  This 


GEN.  B.  R.  GRIERSON, 

A   DISTINGUISHED  UNION   CAVALRY  OFFICER. 


7o  THE  LIFE  OF 

compelled  the  abandonment  of  the  campaign  against  Chattanooga  and 
should  have  forced  Buell  to  the  defense  of  Nashville  and  the  prevention 
of  an  invasion  of  Kentucky.  In  the. opinion  of  BuelFs  critics  this  re- 
quired him  to  concentrate  his  forces  at  Sparta  and  McMinnville,  Ten- 
nessee. ' '  Instead  of  that,"  says  the  Military  Commission,  of  which  Colo- 
nel Donn  Piatt  was  recorder,  "he  waited  until  the  5th  of  September 
before  concentrating "  .  .  .  and  he  then  "retired  to  Nashville, 
thereby  allowing  Bragg  to  cross  the  Cumberland  unmolested.  The  com- 
mission cannot  justify  the  falling  back  from  Murfreesboro  to  Nashville, 
but  it  is  their  opinion  that  it  was  Buell's  duty  from  that  point  to  have 
attacked  the  rebel  army  before  it  crossed  the  Cumberland. 

"  The  order  to  hold  Mumfordsville  proceeded  from  General  Wright, 
commanding  the  Department  of  Ohio,  of  which  Kentucky  formed  a 
part.  [Sheridan  had  been  ordered  to  him.] 

"  It  was  given  in  hopes  that  General  Buell  would  reach  the  place 
in  time  to  save  it.  General  Wright  only  knew  that  Buell  and  Bragg 
were  advancing  towards  it." 

Brigadier-General  Sheridan  was  engaged  in  the  task  of  organizing, 
disciplining,  and  drilling  the  new  troops  which  had  responded  to  the 
call  of  the  President,  as  mentioned  by  General  Halleck,  when  General 
Buell's  arrival  at  Louisville  brought  at  once  every  available  man  and 
commander  into  the  field.  The  army  moved  from  Louisville  on  the 
i  st  of  October.  General  Buell  describes  the  troops  "as  yet  undisci- 
plined, unprovided  with  suitable  artillery,  and  in  every  way  unfit  for 
active  operations  against  a  disciplined  foe."  The  force  was  reorganized. 
Brigadier-General  Philip  Henry  Sheridan  was  assigned  to  the  com- 
mand of  the  Eleventh  Division  of  the  Third  Army  Corps,  which  was 
under  command  of  Major-General  Gilbert.  The  portion  of  this  army 
under  Buell  which  fought  the  battle  of  Perryville  was  organized  into 
two  army  corps.  The  first  was  under  command  of  Major-General  A. 
D.  McCook,  and  but  two  divisions  were  brought  on  the  field,  led  by 
Generals  Lovell  H.  Rousseau  and  James  S.  Jackson.  It  contained  six 
brigades. 

The  Third  Corps  was  under  the  command  of  Major-General 
Charles  C.  Gilbert ;  its  three  divisions  were  led  by  Brigadier-Generals 
Albert  SchoepfF,  a  capital  German  soldier  ;  Robert  B.  Mitchell,  a  sturdy 
fighting  Kansas  volunteer,  who  had  seen  service  in  the  Mexican  War  ; 
and  the  Eleventh  Division  under  command  of  our  hero,  "  Phil"  Sher- 
idan. He  had  three  brigades  of  infantry,  with  two  field  batteries. 
There  were  twelve  regiments  in  all.  In -this  division  the  brigades 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  71 

were  commanded  by  Colonels  Daniel  McCook,  Nicholas  Gruesal, 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Bernard  Loifdolt,  and  the  cavalry  by  Captain  Eben- 
ezer  Gay. 

The  events  immediately  leading  to  the  battle  can  be  rapidly  sum- 
marized. On  the  22d  of  August,  General  George  H.  Thomas,  second 
in  command,  notified  General  Buell  that  Bragg's  army  was  trying  to 
turn  the  left  of  his  position  at  Minsville,  and  so  enter  Kentucky. 
Buell  regarded  this  with  doubt,  as  he  believed  Bragg  would  turn  into 
Northern  Alabama.  Before  he  saw  his  error,  Bragg  had  gained  a  great 
advantage.  Between  that  date  and  the  ist  of  October  there  was  a 
series  of  daring  movements  on  Bragg's  part,  and  of  Fabian  manoeuvres 
on  that  of  Buell's.  Five  divisions  were  put  under  Thomas  to  defend 
Nashville,  which  Bragg  seriously  threatened  by  the  beginning  of  Sep- 
tember, gaining  control  of  the  Cumberland  Valley,  and  pushing  for 
Kentucky.  He  moved  along  the  roads  from  Bardstown  to  Bryants- 
ville,  passing  Marysville  and  Harrodsburg,  and  by  Springfield,  Perry- 
ville,  and  Danville.  Polk  reached  Harrodsburg  on  the  6th  of  October. 
Hardee,  moving  on  the  most  southerly  roads,  was  at  Perryville  on  the 
same  date.  He  proposed  to  General  Bragg  to  'concentrate  the  Con- 
federate army  at  that  point.  Kirby  Smith  was  at  Frankfort  and 
reported  that  a  great  portion  of  the  Union  army  was  in  front  of  him. 
Hardee  on  his  side  felt  troubled,  and  was  closely  pressed.  Confused 
by  these  contradictory  reports,  Bragg  thought  that  Buell  was  marching 
toward  him,  and  that  his  columns  were  placed  all  along  parallel  roads 
from  Lebanon  on  the  right  to  Shelbyville  on  the  left.  Acting  on  this, 
he  reinforced  Kirby  Smith,  and  sent  him  to  Perryville  to  assist  Hardee. 

Buell  had  not,  however,  fallen  into  the  error  that  Bragg  supposed  he 
had  done,  but  had  kept  his  forces  well  concentrated.  There  was  a 
considerable  scarcity  of  water,  which  embarrassed  the  Union  com- 
mander. The  possession  of  the  three  great  springs  at  Perryville  was 
the  prize  in  view,  and  Buell  concentrated  his  forces  in  order  to  obtain 
possession  of  them.  On  the  6th  of  October  General  McCook  with  the 
First  Corps  on  the  left,  was  encamped  between  Bardstown  and  Macks- 
ville.  Gilbert's,  the  Third  Corps,  was  in  the  centre  at  Springfield  ;  and 
Crittenden's  force  was  on  the  right,  between  Springfield  and  Lebanon. 
They  were  now  in  a  position  to  help  each  other.  On  the  morning  of 
the  yth,  McCook  posted  himself  at  Macksville,  from  whence  he  could 
march  either  on  Harrodsburg  or  Perryville.  Crittenden  bivouacked 
where  cross-roads  lead  to  the  latter  village.  Gilbert  approached  by  the 
Springfield  road,  driving  Hardee's  pickets  before  him.  A  little  before 


72  THE  LIFE  OF 

reaching  Perryville,  this  road  crosses  a  small  stream  called  Doctor's 
Creek,  which  though  dry  at  the  time,  had  a  few  muddy  pools  at  its 
bed ;  it  was  the  only  water  within  reach.  Sheridan,  whose  division 
formed  the  right  of  Gilbert's  corps,  took  possession  of  it  on  the  evening 
of  the  9th,  and  placed  his  outposts  along  the  ridge  of  Chaplin's  Hills 
which  rise  on  either  side.  These  hills  separated  the  creek  valley  from 
that  of  another  stream,  Chaplin's  Run.  Perryville  is  situated  at  a  point 
where  the  road  crosses  Chaplin's  Creek,  the  sources  of  which  are 
further  up.  The  region  is  cut  with  ravines  and  thickly  wooded,  mak- 
ing it  difficult  to  hear  and  impossible  to  see  for  any  distance.  Hardee 
with  his  two  divisions  was  encamped  on  the  heights  beyond  Perryville, 
bordering  the  left  bank  of  Chaplin's  Creek.  At  daybreak  of  the  9th  he 
tried  to  dislodge  Sheridan  from  the  position  he  had  assumed  during  the 
night. 

This  attack  brought  on  the  engagement,  and  at  the  outset  Sheridan 
had  his  full  share.  The  movement  of  the  evening  before  by  which  the 
water  holes  were  seized,  was  participated  in  by  both  Sheridan's  and 
Mitchell's  divisions.  Crittenden  did  not  get  into  line  until  the  middle  of 
the  day,  though  not  from  any  want  of  effort  on  his  part.  McCook 
took  his  position  on  to  the  left  of  Gilbert  at  about  ten  in  the  morning, 
but  his  men  were  heated  and  tired,  and  his  force  was  reduced  by  the 
withdrawal  elsewhere  of  Sill's  division.  Of  his  force  of  12,000  under 
Rousseau  and  Jackson,  nearly  all  were  raw  soldiers  who  had  never 
been  under  fire  before. 

The  Federal  line  was  finally  formed :  Crittenden  on  the  extreme 
right,  beyond  the  reach  of  sight  and  sound.  To  the  right  of  the  Perry- 
ville road  was  Gilbert's  corps,  with  Sheridan  resting  on  his  left  on  the 
road,  and  Mitchell's  division  on  his  right.  In  the  rear,  and  separated 
from  him  by  a  considerable  space,  was  Schoepff's  division,  held  in  reserve 
on  Doctor's  Creek.  At  a  certain  distance  to  the  left  of  the  road,  in 
advance  of  the  one  he  had  *  followed  on  his  way  from  Macksville, 
McCook's  corps  went  into  bivouac.  The  arms  were  stacked  and  the 
men  on  fatigue  duty  had  gone  in  search  of  wood  and  water. 

It  was  two  in  the  afternoon.  At  this  moment  cannonading  com- 
menced, but  it  did  not  disturb  either  army.  While  the  soldiers  were 
seeking  shade  and  repose,  groups  of  officers  were  watching  the  shells. 

The  Confederate  commanders  were  preparing  for  a  move  in  force 
upon  the  next  day.  They  did  not  suspect  that  a  splendid  opportunity 
was  being  lost.  General  Buell,  or  rather  his  corps  commanders,  had 
massed  58,000  men  within  reach  of  Perryville.  On  the  other  side  of 
Chaplin's  Creek  was  Hardee  with  15,000  men.  Cheatham  had  just' 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN.  73 

arrived  and  raised  this  to  23,000  men.  The  arrival  of  this  division  deter- 
mined the  Confederates  to  assume  the  offensive  in  the  hope  of  prevent- 
ing a  junction  of  the  Federal  forces.  Bragg  was  present  on  the  field, 
but  left  the  command  to  Polk.  The  two  divisions  of  Hardee  were 
separated  from  the  Federal  lines  by  Chaplin's  Creek.  Anderson  was  op- 
posed to  Rousseau  and  Sheridan.  Buckner,  on  his  right,  faced  Jackson. 
Cheatham  found  himself  on  the  left  of  Anderson,  but  by  a  fortunate 
chance  was  withdrawn  from  this  position,  and  after  a  march  to  the  right 
was  placed  in  reserve  behind  the  other  two  divisions.  If  he  had  com- 
menced the  battle  on  the  left,  he  would  have  roused  Crittenden  and 
brought  him  back  to  the  battle-field.  About  2  o'clock,  Buckner  and 
Anderson  put  themselves  in  motion.  Anderson  attacked  Rousseau's 
line.  The  Union  troops  made  a  splendid  resistance  and  compelled  the 
enemy  to  show  himself  openly.  On  the  right  Liddel's  troops,  led  by 
Buckner,  took  advantage  of  the  woods  to  approach  Terrell's  brigade 
unperceived. 

It  suddenly  opened  fire  and  marched  right  on  the  enemy's  gun. 
Jackson  was  killed  at  the  first  discharge.  The  men  broke  in  disorder. 
Terrell  was  killed  trying  to  rally  them.  A  fresh  brigade  checked  the 
onset,  but  the  line  was  staggering.  Rousseau  fell  back  to  the  creek. 
Buckner  sent  Cleburne's  brigade  forward  to  complete  what  seemed  a 
rout.  Its  leader  was  wounded.  Colonel  Webster  on  our  side  was 
mortally  wounded.  The  division  lost  one-fifth  of  its  strength.  Stark- 
weather was  compelled  also  to  fall  back  with  his  brigade. 

It  was  this  success  of  Buckner's,  steadily  pushed  by  that  com- 
mander, that  brought  the  rebel  left  against  Sheridan's  right,  which 
then  advanced  uncovered.  He  immediately  attacked  their  flank  furi- 
ously and  under  the  movement  re-formed  his  front.  He  opened  an 
enfilading  fire  with  his  two  batteries,  and  brought  them  to  a  halt  at 
once.  The  soldiers  who  had  just  driven  Rousseau's  5,000  men  were 
unable  to  break  Sheridan's  lines.  The  indomitable  little  soldier,  with 
his  fresher  troops,  occupied  a  position  easy  to  defend.  All  the  efforts  of 
the  assailants  were  now  directed  against  Sheridan.  Posted  along  the 
edge  of  the  wood  which  crowned  the  Chaplin  Hills  and  commanding 
the  open  fields  through  which  they,  the  "  rebs,"  were  coming  to  attack 
him,  Sheridan  inflicted  terrible  loss  on  the  enemy.  The  fight  was 
fierce  and  heavy.  About  4  o'clock  General  Gilbert  sent  Mitchell's 
division  to  take  part  in  the  battle.  With  two  brigades  he  drew  near 
to  Sheridan,  covering  his  right.  One  of  them  under  Colonel  Carlin,  of 
Illinois,  joined  the  Eleventh  Division  in  an  offensive  movement.  On 
that  side  the  enemy  was  thrown  back  beyond  Chaplin's  Creek.  The 


74  GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

Federals  passed  through  the  village,  where  they  captured  a  body  of 
prisoners.  Mitchell's  third  brigade  had  gone  to  the  extreme  left  to 
McCook's  relief,  and  for  two  hours  it  made  head  almost  alone  against 
the  attack  of  the  Confederates,  slowly  retiring  before  them,  but  with 
cruel  sacrifices.  Night  came  at  last  and  put  an  end  to  one  of  the  most 
sanguinary  battles  of  the  war,  if  we  take  into  account  the  forces 
engaged.  The  Federal  brigades,  numbering  25,000  men,  lost  4,000. 
The  three  divisions  which  had  alone  sustained  all  the  brunt  of  the 
battle,  about  15,000,  had  left  on  the  field  of  Perryville,  510  killed, 
2,635  wounded,  and  251  prisoners  —  more  than  one-third  of  their  effect- 
ive force. 

The  Comte  de  Paris,  from  whose  work  most  of  these  details  are 
drawn,  considers  the  battle  a  drawn  one,  though  acknowledging  it 
destroyed  the  hope  of  occupying  Kentucky.  It  destroyed  the  reputa- 
tion as  a  soldier  of  General  Buell,  who  was  not  on  the  field  till  sun- 
down, while  it  added  laurels  to  McCook,  Rousseau,  Mitchell,  and 
especially  to  Sheridan,  whose  superb  resistance  to  Buckner's  troops, 
flushed  with  apparent  victory,  turned  the  fate  of  the  day  into  the 
victory  it  certainly  was.  Many  anecdotes  are  told  of  Sheridan  per- 
sonally in  connection  with  this  fight,  but  the  following  will  suffice  : 
General  Gilbert,  not  understanding  something  which  he  saw  through 
his  glass,  sent  a  staff  officer  to  find  out  what  it  was.  When  Sheridan 
was  asked  what  the  movement  meant,  he  said  :  "I  have  driven  the 
enemy  before  me,  and  whipped  them  like  h — 1,  and  that  battery,"  point- 
ing to  a  battery  of  the  enemy  which  was  firing  on  General  McCook's 
troops,  "I'll  silence  it  in  five  minutes."  He  did  it. 

One  of  the  stirring  episodes  of  the  day  was  the  rescue  of  a  battery 
commanded  by  Captain  Loomis,  and  belonging  to  Rousseau's  division. 
It  was  exposed  and  in  danger  from  the  advance  of  Buckner's  forces. 
The  long  range  ammunition  was  exhausted,  and  the  Parrots  were 
loaded  with  grape  and  used  effectively  at  short  range.  When  Rousseau 
was  hardest  pressed  there  was  considerable  danger  of  losing  this  bat- 
tery, till  Sheridan 'ordered  up  three  regiments,  who  in  their  impetuous 
charge  cleared  the  ground  before  them,  and  enabled  the  battery  and 
hard  pressed  troops  to  fall  back  and  re-form.  Sheridan  was  every- 
where during  the  fight,  and  exposed  himself  so  much  that  he  was 
reported  killed.  The  battle  made  solid  the  reputation'  he  had  already 
won  as  a  fighting  trooper,  and  proved  his  ability  to  handle  and  move 
raw  men  under  fire  as  well  as  to  fight  them  effectually. 

There  was  no  breathing  spell  for  Sheridan  or  any.  of  the  real  fight- 
ers, as  at  once  the  army  advanced  towards  Stone  River. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


FROM  PERRYVILLE  TO  STONE   RIVER. 

SHERIDAN'S  PLACE  IN  THE  ARMY  OF  THE  CUMBERLAND — PREPARING  FOR  MUR- 
FREESBORO' — SHERIDAN  LEADS  THE  WAY — THE  BATTLE  OF  STONE  RIVER  — 

THE    DEADLY   WRESTLE  WITH  CHEATHAM  —  COMMENDED  FOR  DISTINGUISHED 
SERVICES. 

"  I  HAVE  possession  of  the  ridge  occupied  by  the  enemy  yesterday." 

This  was  Sheridan's  characteristic  dispatch  the  day  after  Perry- 
ville.  It  was  addressed  to  his  corps  commander,  Major-General  Gil- 
bert. That  officer  in  his  Perryville  report  says:  u  Brigadier-General 
Sheridan  I  commend  to  notice  as  an  officer  of  much  gallantry  and  of 
high  professional  ability.  He  held  the  key  of  our  position  with  tenacity, 
and  used  the  point  to  its  utmost  advantage." 

To  Sheridan  the  next  two  months  were  full  of  activity,  leading  up, 
as  they  did,  to  the  notable  battle  of  Stone  River,  at  Murfreesboro',  Ten- 
nessee. 

Drawn  battle  though  the  Comte  de  Paris  declares  Perryville  to  have 
been,  it  was  the  Union  forces  that  held  the  field  and  made  the  advance 
therefrom,  while  Bragg' s  Confederate  army  retreated  rapidly  south 
and  eastward,  until  they  reached  the  defensible  lines  of  Stone  River. 
General  Buell  found  it  convenient  to  return  to  Louisville,  after  arrival 
at  which  post  he  was  not  again  restored  to  active  command.  His  con- 
duct of  the  Perryville  campaign  was  made  the  subject  of  searching 
inquiry  by  a  military  commission,  whose  verdict  was  in  the  main 
adverse  to  that  general.  The  campaign  and  its  character  still  remains 
the  subject  of  dispute  by  military  critics.  Major-General  George  H. 
Thomas  was  in  command  until  October  3Oth,  moving  the  main  body  of 
the  Union  forces  toward  Nashville.  At  that  date  General  Rosecrans, 
who  had  just  successfully  fought  the  second  battle  of  Corinth,  was 
placed  in  control  of  the  Buell  army,  still  known  to  history  as  the 
Army  of  the  Cumberland.  Rosecrans  was  at  Louisville  on  the  ist 
of  November,  and  immediately  assumed  command,  arriving  at  Bowling 


76  THE  LIFE  OF 

Green  on  the  same  day.  A  considerable  Confederate  force  was  at 
Murfreesboro',  having  arrived  there  on  the  2^th  inst.,  Breckenridge  being 
in  immediate  command,  with  8,000  men."  Forrest  had  in  the  valley  a 
poorly  equipped  cavalry  force  of  over  five  thousand.  An  attack  was 
made  on  Nashville  and  repulsed  on  the  6th  of  November.  The  entire 
rebel  force  did  not  then  exceed  thirty  thousand  in  and  about  Murfrees- 
boro'. At  that  place  forty-five  guns  were  also  concentrated.  Later 
Breckenridge  was  joined  by  the  divisions  under  Cheatham  and  Buckner. 
General  Kirby  Smith  held  Cumberland  Gap  with  over  twelve  thousand 
men.  Bragg  himself  was  at  Tullahoma,  half  way  between  Nashville 
and  Chattanooga.  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  reported  to  be  in  com- 
mand, was,  at  the  date  given,  in  feeble  health  at  Chattanooga.  Our 
scouts  and  spies  reported  that  Bragg  acknowledged  to  receiving  only 
1,500  recruits  in  Kentucky.  Van  Dorn  acknowledged  in  his  report 
a  loss  of  13,000  officers  and  men,  killed,  wounded,  and  missing.  Ster- 
ling Price  was  superseded,  creating  dissatisfaction  among  the  southwest 
Confederate  troops. 

The  Direct  pursuit  of  Bragg's  scattering  army  was  pressed  from 
the.  nth  to  the  22d  of  October  by  the  army  corps  under  Major-General 
Thomas  L.  Crittenden.  Skirmishes  were  had  at  Danville,  Harrods- 
burg,  Stanford,  Lancaster,  Mountain  Gap,  Crab  Orchard,  near  Mount 
Vernon,  Camp  Wildcat,  at  Nelson  and  Pitman's  Cross-roads,  and  on 
the  Madison  road.  The  enemy  retired  through  Cumberland  Gap  and 
the  pursuit  was  discontinued  at  Richmond,  Kentucky,  on  the  zist  of 
October. 

The  troops  of  the  corps  which  at  Perryville  had  been  under  the 
command  of  General  C.  C.  Gilbert,  was  under  the  arrangements  made 
by  the  new  commander,  General  Rosecrans,  transferred  to  Major-Gen- 
eral Alexander  McCook,  the  senior  member  of  the  famous  fighting  fam- 
ily of  that  name,  whose  youngest  member,  Colonel  Dan  McCook,  com- 
manded a  brigade  under  Sheridan  at  Perryville.  Our  little  brigadier 
was  placed  in  command  of  the  Third  Division  of  the  army,  in  the  Twen- 
tieth Corps,  which  was  strengthened  and  made  more  efficient.  The 
records  of  the  service  are  not,  as  during  the  last  year  of  the  Civil  War, 
full  of  Sheridan's  movements,  but  they  tell  of  his  progress  by  the  story 
of  skirmish  and  charge,  of  rifle  volley  and  battery  roar,  of  stubborn  fight- 
ing and  bayonet's  flash.  Wherever  there  was  work  to  do,  an  enemy  to 
feel,  or  a  force  to  be  repulsed,  Sheridan  was  ordered  to  the  front.  When 
general  battle  was  had  and  great  armies  interlocked  in  herculean  strug- 
gle, Sheridan  is  reported  as  stubbornly  fighting,  heroically  resisting 


GEN.  FHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  77 

great  odds,  holding  the  key  of  our  position  with  Irish  tenacity,  or 
advancing  on  the  kibes  of  victory  with  that  elan  and  dash  that  at  last 
made  him  renowned.  As  Grant  said  of  Sheridan  on  one  occasion, 
"  When  I  wanted  that  man,  he  was  sure  to  be  there."  Sheridan,  on 
being  told  of  this,  said  very  coolly,  "  Well,  a  fellow  ought  to  be  where 
he  is  expected." 

Carrying  the  general  outlines  of  this  campaign  in  mind,  the  reader 
must  remember  that  the  Union  policy  involved,  first,  the  defense  and 
safety  of  Nashville,  and  second,  an  advance  on  Chattanooga,  a  move- 
ment which  must  be  made  in  order  to  clear  the  Tennessee  Valley  and 
bring  the  fighting  to  the  gates  of  Georgia,  thus  beginning  the  linking  of 
our  eastern  and  central  armies  together.  The  rebel  policy  had  already 
proved  unsuccessful.  It  aimed  to  divide  the  Union  line  of  action 
between  the  Appalachian  Range  and  the  Mississippi,  by  an  attack  on 
the  centre,  to  end  in  the  occupation  of  Southern  Kentucky  and  North- 
ern Tennessee.  So  far  it  had  but  reaped  disaster.  The  two  objectives, 
then,  were  Nashville,  as  sought  by  the  rebels,  and  Chattanooga,  as 
advanced  upon  by  the  Union  forces.  Bragg  claimed  to  have  won  a 
victory  at  Perryville.  His  previous  operations,  with  the  expectations 
whereon  they  were  based,  proved,  however,  a  complete  failure.  He 
was  badly  punished  in  having  Folk's  army  driven  back,  but  declared  that 
he  left  his  enemy  in  a  worse  condition.  This  was  not  true.  Bragg 
himself  retired  to  Tullahoma,  and  only  slowly  did  the  Confederate 
military  authorities  realize  that  General  Rosecrans  was  making  ready 
for  a  winter  battle.  Indeed,  it  is  doubtful  if  they  conceived  that  to  be 
the  case  until  after  they  were  defeated  and  driven  back  at  Stone  River. 

General  Rosecrans  wisely  concentrated  his  effective  army  about 
Nashville.  He  was  fortunate  first,  in  having  Buell's  troops  to  handle, 
and  next,  in  securing  a  large  number  of  recruits  and  new  regiments  to 
fill  all  gaps.  The  concentration  at  Nashville  enabled  the  easy  repulse 
of  all  Confederate  movements  on  that  point.  By  means  of  the  railroad 
and  the  Cumberland  River,  a  vast  amount  of  supplies  were  gathered, 
transported,  and  stored  within  the  next  forty  days  following  the  battle  of 
Perryville. 

Some  skirmishing  and  brief  conflicts  marked  the  movements  of 
Sheridan's  division  between  the  loth  of  October  when  he  moved  out 
on  the  Chaplin  Hills,  and  his  movements  in  the  advance  on  the  26th 
of  December,  along  the  Murfreesboro'  and  other  pikes,  toward  the 
Stone  River  battle-field.  On  the  nth  of  October  Sheridan's  com- 
mand had  a  sharp  encounter  at  Crab  Orchard,  Kentucky.  From  that 


78  GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

date  till  November  4,  1862,  when  General  McCook  moved  to  Nash- 
ville direct,  there  is  little  to  be  said  of  Sheridan  and  his  command. 
Brigadier-General  Sill  entered  Nashville  on  the  yth.  Breckenridge 
had  made  a  movement  in  force  and  been  driven  back.  The  Fourteenth 
Corps  took  some  slight  part  in  this  encounter.  Rosecrans  then  began 
the  deliberate  concentration  of  his  army.  Confederate  concentration 
began  at  Murfreesboro' ,  to  which  point  Bragg  also  moved  his  Tulla- 
homa  forces.  Sheridan  had  a  severe  brush  at  Edgefield  Junction  on 
the  yth  of  November.  On  the  I4th  he  reports  movements  from  Mill 
Creek.  But  the  month  of  November  was  one  of  preparation.  The 
work  became  serious  early  in  December.  On  the  9th  of  that  month 
Sheridan  reports  "something  brewing"  inside  of  the  Confederate 
lines.  On  the  1 2th  he  had  a  brush  while  reconnoitering  along  Mill 
Creek.  His  scout  reported  60,000  Confederates  concentrated  at  Mur- 
freesboro'. On  the  1 6th  Sheridan's  vedettes  were  in  sight  of  those 
of  the  enemy.  The  efficient  force  of  the  Third  Division  on  the 
1 8th  was  6,495  rank  and  file.  On  the  2Oth  it  was  nearly  ten  thou- 
sand strong.  On  the  26th  of  November  Sheridan's  division  was  on 
the  Nolensville  pike.  The  enemy's  cavalry  were  feeling  the  Federal 
'  lines,  and  Sheridan  sent  out  detachments  in  every  direction.  A  large 
quantity  of  stores  were  captured.  Morgan  was  also  driven  in  disorder 
across  the  Cumberland.  Constant  movement  was  the  order  of  the  day. 
On  the  yth  of  December  the  Confederates  gained  an  advantage  in  the 
capture  by  Morgan  of  i  ,500  men  at  Hartsville.  Two  days  later  General 
Wheeler,  now  in  Congress,  tried  but  failed  to  capture  our  forage  train. 
He  was  handsomely  repulsed  by  Colonel  Stanley  Matthews,  now  an 
Associate  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court.  General  Stanley,  command- 
ing the  Union  cavalry,  many  of  them  new  men,  drove  the  Confederates 
from  Franklin,  where  two  years  later  General  Schofield  (who  is  now  the 
Senior  Major-General  of  the  United  States  Army) ,  under  General  George 
H.  Thomas'  command,  fought  the  famous  battle  of  Franklin  and  utterly 
routed  the  Confederate  Hood.  A  new  revolving  rifle  was  used  for  the 
first  time  by  Stanley's  men. 

Up  to  this  date  the  Confederate  commanders  had  failecl  to  recog- 
nize the  audacious  nature  of  Rosecrans'  policy  and  purpose.  They 
did  not  deem  it  probable  that  a  sane  commander  would  give  battle  in 
mid-winter.  On  the  26th,  the  day  following  Christmas,  they  began 
a  rapid  concentration  on  Stone  River,  at  Murfreesboro',  a  very  strong 
natural  position. 

Within  the  Department  of  the  Cumberland,  embracing  Southern 


GEN.  U.  S.  GRANT. 

THE  GREAT  GENERAL-IN-CHIEF,  UNDER  WHOM   THE   CIVIL  WAR  WAS  CARRIED  TO 
A  SUCCESSFUL    ISSUE. 

{From  a  Photograph    Taken  Since  the    War.} 


80  THE  LIFE  OF 

Kentucky  and  Central  Tennessee,  General  Rosecrans'  effective  force 
was  on  the  2Oth  of  December,  1862,  reported  at  over  one  hundred  and 
twenty-seven  thousand  men,  rank  and  file.  He  commenced  his  move- 
ment on  Murfreesboro',  fifteen  miles  from  Nashville,  upon  the  26th 
of  December,  with  a  force  of  46,910  men  —  41,451  infantry,  2,223 
artillery  and  150  guns,  and  3,266  cavalry.  General  George  H.  Thomas 
commanded  the  centre,  consisting  of  two  divisions,  a  force  in  all  of 
13,397.  General  A.  D.  McCook,  under  whom  Sheridan  was  serving, 
commanded  the  right  wing,  with  three  divisions  under  Davis,  Johnson, 
and  Sheridan,  having  a  total  strength  of  13,397.  Crittenden  was  in 
command  of  the  left,  with  an  equal  force. 

On  the  26th  Sheridan  was  reported  with  his  division  as  "  all  out  of 
camp,  followed  by  Johnson."  On  the  3oth,  when  battle  was  at  last 
closed,  he  was  reported  close  "up  with  Negley's  division"  of  the 
centre.  The  Confederate  General  Hardee  held  the  lines  of  Stone 
River.  The  Union  commander  was  confident  of  victory,  and  was 
reported  as  saying  :  "  We've  come  out  to  win  this  battle,  and  we  shall 
do  it.  We'll  keep  right  on,  if  our  provisions  give  out,  and  eat  corn 
for  a  week.  We  can  and  will  win  this  battle." 

To  reach  Chattanooga  by  early  spring  —  the  object  of  all  Federal 
operations  in  the  Central  South  —  it  was  necessary  to  fight  a  vigorous 
and  decisive  battle.  Bragg  meant  to  fight  at  Tullahoma ;  Rosecrans 
planned  a  combat  in  the  neighborhood  of  his  base  of  supplies.  His 
movements  were  bold  and  well-timed.  The^  Confederate  cavalry  under 
Forrest  and  Morgan  was  operating  far  from  the  Cumberland  region. 
To  oppose  the  Union  advance  on  Murfreesboro'  were  Folk's  corps  and 
Breckenridge's  three  brigades  of  Hardee's  corps.  The  balance  of 
Hardee's  force,  under  Cheatham,  was  at  Eagleville,  forming  the  rebel 
left  to  the  southwest  of  Polk.  The  rebel  right  wing,  opposing  Critten- 
den, was  at  Readville.  Hardee  himself  was  on  the  Nashville  pike 
with  one  division,  watching  the  advance  of  our  centre. 

The  Federal  army  was  put  in  motion  on  three  different  roads,  lead- 
ing from  Nashville  in  a  south  and  southeasterly  direction.  The  centre 
under  Thomas,  took  the  Franklin  road  ;  McCook,  with  the  right  wing, 
that  of  Nolensville  ;  and  Crittenden,  on  the  left,  that  of  Murfreesboro'. 
The  right  and  left  thus  flanked  the  position  occupied  by  Hardee  at 
Triune  on  the  Nashville  pike,  ready  to  unite  in  a  combined  attack  on 
him  if  he  tried  to  hold  that  position.  If  he  fell  back,  Thomas  and 
McCook  were  both  to  bear  to  the  left  and  approach  the  Nashville  road, 
followed  by  Crittenden,  in  order  to  present  themselves  simultaneously 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  81 

with  Hardee  before  Stone  River,  a  small  stream  which  covers  Murfrees- 
boro'.     It  was  evident  that  at  this  point  Bragg  must  fight  or  evacuate. 

McCook  met  Hardee's  pickets  a  short  distance  from  Nashville.  The 
head  of  his  column  took  possession  of  Nolensville  after  a  sharp  fight, 
in  which  they  lost  seventy-five  men  and  captured  a  gun.  Hardee  had, 
however,  begun  to  concentrate  the  day  before,  and  on  the  2^th  his 
forces  were  well  advanced  on  the  roads  to  positions  before  and  lead- 
ing to  Murfreesboro'.  Crittenden  on  the  Union  left,  advancing  slowly, 
so  as  to  allow  McCook  time  to  feel  the  enemy,  reached  Lavergne  on 
the  evening  of  the  26th,  after  some  slight  skirmishes.  The  next 
day  he  reached  Stewart's  Creek,  and  his  cavalry  by  a  bold  move- 
ment succeeded  in  carrying  the  bridge  thrown  across  the  stream,  before 
the  Confederates  could  destroy  it.  Thomas  neared  the  other  corps. 
Negley  joined  Crittenden  at  Stewart's  Creek  on  the  27th.  Rousseau 
camped  that  day  at  Nolensville.  On  the  28th  the  Confederate  army 
united  at  and  near  Murfreesboro'.  According  to  the  Comte  de  Paris, 
they  were  35,000  strong.  On  the  main  pikes  three  brigades  of  infantry, 
three  batteries  of  artillery,  and  '5,000  cavalry  remained  to  check  and 
delay  the  Federal  advance.  On  Sunday  evening,  the  28th  of  December, 
the  Federal  army  found  itself  massed  on  two  roads.  McCook,  who  con- 
tinued to  occupy  the  Nashville  and  Shelbyville,  had  the  main  body  of  his 
troops  near  Triune,  on  the  direct  road  to  Murfreesboro'.  Thomas  had 
joined  Crittenden's  corps  not  far  from  Stewart's  Creek,  and  taken  a 
position  behind  that  corps.  Everybody  was  put  in  motion  on  Monday 
morning,  the  29th.  McCook,  on  the  right,  reached  Wilkinson's  Cross- 
roads, where  he  halted  the  greater  part  of  his  corps.  His  advanced  brig- 
ade, under  Woodruff',  having  taken  the  Murfreesboro'  road,  arrived  that 
evening  at  Overall's  Creek.  The  left  wing  advanced  still  further,  fol- 
lowed by  Negley's  division  of  Thomas'  corps.  Palmer's  brigades, 
which  were  in  advance,  soon  met  the  Confederate  outp'osts  and  secured 
the  bridges  and  turnpike,  making  an  easy  means  of  getting  over  the 
creek.  Palmer  halted  at  last  near  Murfreesboro',  upon  a  line  of  breast- 
works which  lay  across  the  road.  Here  the  Confederates  were  massed. 
The  scouts  reported  that  they  seemed  to  be  getting  ready  to  leave  the 
works.  Misled  by  this  information,  Crittenden  took  Harper's  brigade 
of  Wood's  division  and  caused  it  to  ford  Stone  River  to  get  in  position 
with  Palmer,  who  was  before  him.  The  purpose  was  to  reach  the 
town  on  the  side  easiest  of  approach.  Harper  that  day  captured  some 
prisoners  and  put  a  regiment  to  flight.  The  prisoners  said  they  had 
no  intention  of  leaving.  On  the  evening  of  the  29th  the  Federals  through 
different  manoeuvres,  found  themselves  in  two  bodies. 

6 


82  THE  LIFE  OF 

On  the  29th  the  Confederate  army,  well  in  hand,  was  ready  to  fight, 
occupying  a  narrow  space  before  Murfreesboro'.  Hardee's  corps  was 
on  the  right  bank  of  Stone  River  ;  Breckenridge  was  in  front,  on  some 
hills,  with  Cleburne  behind  him.  Polk  held  the  left  bank ;  Wither's 
division  was  in  front.  Still  more  to  the  left,  and  in  the  rear,  was 
McCown's  division  of  Kirby  Smith's  corps.  This  was  to  cover  Folk's 
flank  in  case  McCook  should  come  by  the  Franklin  road.  Wheeler's 
cavalry  brigade  started  on  the  29th  to  harass  Rosecrans'  rear  and  if 
possible  capture  his  wagon  trains.  Wharton,  with  2,000  cavalry, 
cleared  the  front  of  the  rebel  army.  Bragg  waited  all  day  of  the  3oth 
to  be  attacked,  believing  Rosecrans  to  have  a  force  larger  than  was  the 
case.  This  inaction  enabled  the  Union  commander  to  bring  all  his 
forces  up  for  the  decisive  battle  of  the  3ist.  On  the  evening  of  the  3oth 
the  musketry  firing  on  McCook's  advance  was  very  sharp.  Sheridan 
did  the  fighting.  In  his  report  General  Sheridan  says  : 

"At  sundown  I  had  taken  up  my  position,  my  right  resting  on  the 
timber,  my  left  on  the  Wilkinson  pike,  my  reserve  brigade  of  four  regi- 
ments to  the  rear  and  opposite  the  centre. 

"  The  killed  and  wounded  during  the  day  were  one  hundred  and 
thirty-five.  General  Jeff.  C.  Davis'  left  closed  on  my  right,  and  his 
line  was  thrown  to  the  rear,  so  that  it  formed  nearly  a  right  angle  with 
me.  General  Negley's  division  of  Thomas'  corps  was  immediately  on 
my  left,  his  right  resting  on  the  left-hand  side  of  the  Wilkinson  pike." 

General  Rosecrans  gave  his  orders  to  his  corps  commanders  on  the 
evening  of  the  3Oth,  and  gave  them  in  detail  his  plan  of  battle.  The 
rebel  army,  he  said,  lay  across  Stone  River.  Rosecrans  determined 
to  concentrate  as  large  a  force  as  possible  in  front  of  Breckenridge' s 
division,  occupying  the  hills  on  the  right  of  the  field.  While  our  right 
was  to  hold  the  enemy  in  check  in  case  it  assumed  the  offensive,  the 
left  was  to  cross  Stone  River  and  take  possession  of  the  hills.  From 
this  point  our  artillery  was  to  enfilade  Bragg's  rear,  while  the  centre 
bearing  toward  the  south  would  force  the  river  road,  and  place  itself 
between  them  and  Murfreesboro'.  This  was  a  bold  plan,  because 
Rosecrans  thought  his  enemy  had  50,000  men.  Its  chief  aim  was  to 
divide  the  enemy  in  two.  The  ground  of  attack  was  covered  by  thick- 
ets which  would  protect  our  movements.  'Breckenridge  was  on  the 
top  of  bare  hills.  The  right  wing  was  the  weakest  part  of  the  Federal 
lines  :  in  fact  McCook,  with  his  corps  alone,  occupied  more  than  one- 
half  of  our  line.  This  came  very  near  proving  a  fatal  weakness.  At 
any  rate,  the  plan  threw  the  burden  of  the  severest  fighting  on  the  Twen- 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  8} 

tieth  Army  Corps.  Each  of  its  three  divisions  had  two  brigades  in 
front  and  one  in  reserve.  Sheridan's  was  on  the  left,  Davis'  in  the  centre, 
and  Johnson's  on  the  right.  It  was  deemed  probable  the  enemy  would 
attack  our  right,  in  order  to  make  a  division  in  favor  of  their  left. 
Thus  Rosecrans'  success  depended  on  the  resistance  which  this  part 
of  his  army  could  make.  Our  officers  were  ignorant  of  the  topography, 
while  the  rebels  were  familiar  with  every  acre.  On  the  evening  of  the 
30th  the  rebel  position  was  as  follows  :  Hardee  left  Breckenridge  alone 
on  the  hills  upon  the  right  bank  of  Stone  River.  Polk  was  in  the  centre 
with  Withers'  division  in  first  line  and  that  of  Cheatham  in  the  second 
line.  Hardee  was  on  the  left  with  McCown's  and  Cleburne's  divisions- 
behind  him.  The  convergence  of  three  roads  here  enabled  the  Con- 
federates to  mass  their  centre  and  left  upon  two  lines,  interior  and  short, 
a  fact  which  made  hot  and  dangerous  work  for  McCook.  McCown 
was  ordered  to  attack  the  extreme  right  of  the  Union  army,  while 
Cleburne  was  to  follow  and  attack  McCook's  centre.  Polk  was  to  take 
the  offensive  at  the  same  time.  Breckenridge  was  held  in  reserve. 

It  will  be  seen  by  this  disposition  of  their  forces  the  Confederates 
designed  to  give  McCook  a  hammering,  with  the  expectation  of  at  least 
doubling  him  up.  Rosecrans  was  somewhat  afraid  of  this,  but  left 
McCook  with  discretion  as  to  changing  his  position.  Upon  his  corps' 
capacity  to  bear  this  hammering  by  Hardee  was  to  depend  the  success 
of  the  river  march. 

In  the  execution  of  his  plan  Rosecrans,  leaving  the  right  wing  to 
bear  the  hammering  of  Hardee,  personally  superintended  the  moving 
of  the  left  under  Crittenden  across  the  Stone  River,  to  the  south. 
Wood's  division  of  Thomas'  command  was  to  be  moved  again  to  the 
north  side.  The  main  Confederate  attack  was  to  be  from  the  northeast ; 
our  main  attack  would  have  been  on  their  southeast.  Had  it  been  suc- 
cessful it  must  have  flanked  and  completely  doubled  up  Bragg's  army. 
Hardee  made  this  plan  nugatory  by  concentrating  such  powerful  attacks 
on  McCook  as  at  last  to  compel  Rosecrans  to  order  Crittenden  across 
the  river  again,  and  to  turn  Thomas  by  the  left  flank  into  line  of  battle 
to  meet  and  drive  back  the  on-coming  Confederates.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary to  follow  in  detail  the  movements  in  this  great  battle,  as  we  develop 
chiefly  the  part  that  Sheridan  played.  From  the  brief  outline  given  it 
will  be  seen  that  the  corps  of  which  his  division  formed  a  part,  bore  the 
most  savage  brunt  of  the  battle.  It  is  equally  as  certain  that  his  part  of 
it  was  in  the  foremost  and  thickest  of  the  fight.  Sheridan's  report  of 
his  own  and  division's  share  in  that  day  of  savage  onslaught  tells  the 
story  of  the  conduct  of  his  troops  in  the  battle.  He  says  : 


84  THE  LIFE  OF 

"About  7.15  A.  M.,  the  enemy  advanced  to  the  attack  across  an 
open  cotton  field  in  Sill's  front.  This  column  was  opened  on  by  Brush's 
battery  of  Sill's  brigade,  which  had  .a  direct  fire  on  its  front ;  also  by 
Hiscock's  and  Houghtailing's  batteries,  which  had  an  oblique  fire  on  its 
front,  from  a  commanding  position  near  the  centre  of  my  line.  The 
effect  of  this  fire  on  the  enemy's  columns  was  terrible.  The  enemy, 
however,  continued  to  advance  until  they  had  reached  nearly  the  edge 
of  the  timber,  where  they  were  opened  upon  by  Sill's  infantry,  at  a 
range  of  not  over  fifty  yards.  The  destruction  to  the  enemy's  columns 
which  was  closed  in  a  mass,  was  terrific. 

"  For  a  short  time  they  withstood  this  fire,  maneuvered,  then  broke 
and  ran,  Sill  directing  his  troops  to  charge,  which  was  gallantly  done, 
and  the  enemy  driven  back  across  the  valley  and  behind  their  intrench- 
ments.  In  this  charge  General  Sill  was  killed.  The  brigade  then  fell 
back  in  good  order  and  resumed  its  former  lines.  Here,  unfortunately, 
the  brigade  of  Colonel  Woodruff  gave  way,  also  one  regiment  of  Sill's 
brigade,  which  was  in  the  second  line.  This  regiment  fell  back  some 
distance,  into  an  open  field,  and  then  rallied,  its  place  being  supplied 
by  a  third  regiment  of  the  reserve.  At  this  time  the  enemy,  who  had 
attacked  on  the  extreme  right  of  our  wing  against  Johnson,  and  also 
on  Davis'  front,  had  been  successful,  and  two  divisions  on  my  right 
were  retiring  in  great  confusion,  closely  followed  by  the  enemy,  com- 
pletely turning  my  position  and  exposing  my  line  to  a  fire  from  the  rear. 

"  I  hastily  withdrew  the  whole  of  Sill's  brigade,  and  the  third  regi- 
ment sent  to  support  it,  at  the  same  time  directing  Colonel  Roberts  of 
the  left  brigade,  who  had  changed  front  and  formed  in  column  of  regi- 
ments, to  charge  the  enemy  in  the  timber  from  which  I  had  withdrawn 
those  regiments. 

u  This  was  very  gallantly  done  by  Colonel  Roberts,  who  captured 
one  piece  of  the  enemy's  artillery,  which,  however,  had  to  be  aban- 
doned. 

"In  the  meantime  I  had  formed  Sill's  brigade  and  Schaeffer's  on  a 
line  at  right  angles  to  my  first  line  and  behind  the  three  batteries  of 
artillery,  which  were  placed  in  a  fine  position,  directing  Colonel 
Roberts  to  return  and  form  on  this  new  line.  Then  I  made  an  unavail- 
ing attempt  to  form  the  troops  on  my  right  on  this  front  line,  in  front  of 
which  were  open  fields,  through  which  the  enemy  was  approaching 
under  a  heavy  fire  from  Hiscock's,  Houghtailing's,  and  Brush's  bat- 
teries. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  8j 

"  After  the  attempt  had  proved  entirely  unsuccessful,  and  my  right 
was  again  turned,  General  McCook  directed  me  to  advance  to  the  front 
and  form  on  the  right  of  Negley.  This  movement  was  successfully 
accomplished  under  a  heavy  fire  of  musketry  and  artillery,  every  regi- 
ment of  mine  remaining  unbroken.  I  took  position  on  Negley's  right, 
Roberts'  brigade  having  been  placed  in  position  at  right  angles  to  Neg- 
ley's line  facing  to  the  south,  the  other  two  brigades  being  placed  to  the 
rear  and  at  right  angles  with  Roberts,  and  facing  the  west,  covering 
the  rear  of  Negley's  lines. 

"  General  Cheatham's  division  advanced  on  Roberts'  brigade,  and 
heavy  masses  of  the  enemy,  with  three  batteries  of  artillery,  advanced 
over  the  open  ground  which  I  had  occupied  in  the  previous  part  of 
the  engagement,  at  the  same  time  the  enemy  opening  from  their  in- 
trenchments  in  the  direction  of  Murfreesboro'. 

"  The  contest  then  became  terrible  ;  the  enemy  made  three  attacks 
and  were  three  times  repulsed,  the  artillery  range  of  the  respective  bat- 
teries being  not  over  two  hundred  yards.  In  these  attacks  the  Roberts 
brigade  lost  its  commander,  who  was  killed. 

•• '  Schaeffer's  brigade  being  entirely  out  of  ammunition,  I  directed 
them  to  fix  bayonets  and  await  the  enemy.  Roberts'  brigade,  which 
was  nearly  out  of  ammunition,  I  directed  to  fall  back,  resisting  the 
enemy. 

u  The  difficulty  of  withdrawing  the  artillery  here  became  very  great, 
the  ground  being  rocky  and  covered  with  a  dense  growth  of  cedar. 
Houghtailing's  battery  had  to  be  abandoned,  also  two  pieces  of  Brush's 
battery . 

"  Three  regiments  of  Schaeffer's  brigade  having  supplied  themselves 
with  ammunition,  I  put  into  action,  by  direction  of  General  Rose- 
crans,  directly  to  the  front  and  right  of  General  Wood's  division,  on 
the  left-hand  side  of  the  railroad. 

"  The  brigade  advanced  through  a  clump  of  timber,  and  took  posi- 
tion on  the  edge  of  a  cotton  field,  close  upon  the  enemy's  line,  relieving 
the  division  of  General  Wood,  which  was  falling  back  under  the  heavy 
pressure  of  the  enemy.  At  this  point  I  lost  my  third  and  last  com- 
mander, who  was  killed." 

The  Comte  de  Paris  says  that  two  of  Sheridan's  brigades  under  Sill 
and  Roberts,  formed  a  continuation  of  the  line  as  far  as  the  Wilkinson 
road  ;  they  were  supported  by  Schaeffer  with  Sheridan's  third  brigade. 
A  large  space  separated  this  road  from  the  Franklin  road.  It  was  occu- 
pied by  the  other  two  divisions  of  McCook's  corps  ;  Davis'  left  and  right 


86  THE  LIFE  OF 

was  formed  by  Woodruff's  and  Post's  brigades.  They  were  in  the  woods. 
Carlin's  was  between  these  two,  a  little  to  the  rear,  in  a  clearing  where 
the  artillery  of  that  division  had  taker!  a  position.  Johnson  had  the 
extremity  of  this  line  ;  Kirk's  brigade  was  in  front  of  the  strip  of  wood- 
land extending  to  the  Franklin  road,  and  that  of  the  German-American 
Willich,  brigadier,  was  placed  parallel  to  this  road,  with  one  regiment 
drawn  back  and  facing  the  west.  The  third  brigade  of  this  division 
was  placed  on  a  dirt  road.  Communications  were  extremely  difficult 
between  the  different  bodies. 

The  attack  on  McCook's  corps,  led  by  McCown,  was  a  terrific  one. 
The  Confederates  advanced  under  a  terrible  artillery  fire,  and  at  one 
time  a  savage  hand-to-hand  encounter  ensued.  It  was  so  overwhelm- 
ing that  Johnson's  division  was  driven  to  the  north  of  the  Franklin 
road.  The  pursuing  rebels  diverged  to  the  west,  a  mistake  which 
enabled  Davis  to  form  for  Cleburne's  attack,  which  he  repulsed. 
Cleburne,  reinforced  by  Liddel,  drove  Davis  until  Carlin's  brigade 
checked  the  rebel  advance.  He  lost  his  guns  and  was  compelled  to  fall 
back.  The  Union  lines  re-formed  and  checked  Hardee.  Then  followed 
the  assault  on  Sill's  brigade,  already  described  by  Sheridan.  McCown 
succeeded  in  driving  Davis  back  to  the  cedar  wood. 

It  was  a  critical  moment.  We  had  lost  all  the  field  on  the  right,  south 
of  the  Wilkinson  road.  Here  our  cavalry  held  Wharton  in  check.  He 
had  been  trying  savagely  to  capture  our  ordnance  train  and  to  seize  the 
batteries  hastily  withdrawn  to  the  encumbered  pike.  If  Polk  had  moved 
at  this  opportune  moment,  the  fate  of  the  day  might  have  been  very  dif- 
ferent. But  he  delayed  for  nearly  an  hour.  This  was  probably  due  to 
uncertainty  as  to  the  point  on  which  Rosecrans  would  hurl  his  left  and 
centre.  The  latter's  movement  required  McCook  to  delay  the  opera- 
tions of  Hardee  for  at  least  three  hours.  Believing  that  his  proposed 
attack  on  the  left  would  fully  compensate  for  all  losses  on  the  right, 
Rosecrans  gave  no  heed  to  McCook's  first  report,  but  pushed  his  own 
movement  with  vigor.  But  the  roar  of  battle  growing  nearer,  at  last 
convinced  him  of  danger  to  the  Twentieth  Corps.  When  later  dis- 
patches were  received  from  McCook,  the  commanding  general  acted 
promptly.  There  was  not  a  moment  to  lose.  Disaster  to  the  right 
could  not  be  repaired  by  smashing  the  rebel  left,  for  the  right  had  to  be 
rescued  from  its  dangerous  position. 

The  enemy  was  already  trying  to  cut  off  his  communications  and 
drive  him  back  to  the  river.  The  forces  massed  on  the  left  must  be 
pushed  forward  to  oppose  the  victors.  In  a  moment  the  troops  were 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  87 

marching  toward  the  cedar  wood.  Rosecrans  brought  back  Van  Cleve 
and  sent  him  with  Wood's  division  to  a  point  where  the  Nashville  road 
crosses  a  plain,  the  defense  of  which  was  of  great  importance.  With- 
out waiting  for  the  execution  of  these  orders,  the  general  galloped  to 
the  centre,  where  a  new  battle  had  just  begun.  Wither's  division  had 
attacked  the  Union  position  on  that  side  with  great  fierceness.  Sheridan 
came  to  the  front  with  equal  vigor.  He  had  been  expecting  this  attack 
since  daylight  and  was  prepared  to  receive  it.  Sill's  brigade  on  the 
right,  Roberts'  on  the  left,  were  posted  along  the  wooded  slopes  and 
among  rocks,  whence  they  commanded  several  large  cotton  fields  which 
the  enemy  would  have  to  pass  without  shelter.  Their  batteries  were 
placed  in  the  most  prominent  positions,  and  SchaefTer  was  ready  to  help 
them.  When  Cleburne  was  stopped  in  front  of  the  hospital,  Polk  made 
his  great  attack  on  the  Federal  centre.  The  left  column,  led  by  Cheat- 
ham,  marched  against  Sheridan.  Loomis'  brigade  on  the  left,  that  of 
Marrigault  on  the  right,  bravely  advanced  amidst  a  shower  of  balls  and 
scrapnel  which  thinned  their  ranks. 

Our  lines  were  compelled  to  abandon  some  ground,  and  on  retak- 
ing possession  of  it  they  found  themselves  exposed  to  a  still  more  severe 
fire  than  at  first.  Loomis  was  wounded  and  his  men  driven  back.  Marri- 
gault on  the  right  was  also  repulsed  after  great  slaughter.  Cheatham 
pushed  his  second  line  forward,  Vaughn  resumed  the  fight  on  the  left, 
and  Maney  on  the  right,  but  these  attacks  were  fruitless. 

Sheridan  was  in  the  midst  of  his  soldiers,  whose  efforts  he  directed 
with  the  quick  glance  of  a  leader  who  knows  how  to  turn  the  least  ob- 
stacle to  account.  Just  as  Vaughn's  troops  were  beginning  to  give  way, 
Sill  boldly  assumed  the  offensive,  charged  and  drove  them  back  in  dis- 
ovder.  In  a  short  space  of  time  the  Confederates  lost  one-third  of  their 
effective  force.  But  the  heroic  Sill  fell  mortally  wounded  in  the  midst 
of  his  retreating  enemy.  Maney's  brigade,  which  Cheatham  had  hurled 
on  the  right,  became  engaged  with  Roberts'  troops,  but  gained  no 
ground.  It  was  not  so  completely  repulsed  as  Vaughn  and  Loomis' 
troops.  But  a  fresh  danger  was  about  to  compel  Sheridan  to  surrender 
part  of  the  ground  which  the  enemy  had  so  unsuccessfully  attacked  in 
front.  Davis  had  just  been  dislodged  from  the  hospital,  and  his  whole 
division  was  driven  back  on  the  Wilkinson  road.  Here  Folk's  force 
and  Johnson's  brigade  of  Cleburne's  division  struck  the  extremity  of 
Sheridan's  line,  where  Sill's  soldiers  stpod,  hardly  recovered  from  a  too 
dear  success.  Almost  at  the  same  time  Liddel's  and  McNair's  troops, 
extending  on  the  right  in  the  pursuit  of  Davis,  who  was  in  full  retreat, 


88  THE  LIFE  OF 

threatened  to  surround  Sheridan  completely.  But  neither  himself  nor 
his  soldiers  were  disconcerted  at  finding  themselves  in  this  dangerous 
position.  Instead  of  allowing  the  division  to  be  carried  away  by  the 
movement  of  his  neighbors,  Sheridan  did  not  hesitate  to  make,  under 
the  very  fire  of  the  enemy,  a  change  of  front.  This  enabled  him  to 
preserve  the  important  position  he  occupied  with  the  least  possible  loss 
of  ground.  He  could  not  abandon  this  position  without  uncovering 
the  centre  of  the  army,  as  he  had  himself  been  uncovered  by  the  rout 
of  the  right.  The  cedar  wood,  the  eastern  margin  of  which  he  so  suc- 
cessfully defended,  extended  to  the  Wilkinson  pike  at  the  southeast, 
but  the  southern  border  soon  receded  again,  to  make  room  for  a  square- 
shaped  clearing. 

It  was  upon  this  receding  margin  of  the  woods  that  Sheridan 
resolved  to  rest  his  new  line,  facing  south.  His  left  still  lay  joined 
to  Negley's  right,  which  he  thus  continued  to  protect,  and  he  only 
abandoned  the  extreme  end  of  the  wood,  which  stretched  out  as  far  as 
the  Wilkinson  road  —  a  point  where  he  had  run  the  risk  of  being 
surrounded.  In  order  to  effect  this  conversion,  Sheridan  brought  the 
brigades  of  Sill  and  Schaeffer  to  the  rear.  As  soon  as  the  Confederates 
started  in  pursuit  of  them,  Roberts'  brigade  made  a  vigorous  charge, 
thus  freeing  the  wood  and  enabling  the  other  two  brigades  to  effect 
their  change  of  front,  after  which  the  former  came  in  its  turn  to  take 
position  alongside  of  them.  Shortly  after  Cheatham's  first  attack  upon 
Sheridan,  Withers,  on  his  right,  had  directed  one  of  his  brigades  under 
Anderson,  against  Negley's  division.  This  was  in  conformity  with 
Bragg's  instructions,  who  desired  that  the  battle  be  gradually  extended 
from  left  to  right.  But  this  isolated  brigade  was  received  with  a  terrific 
artillery  fire,  excellently  handled.  It  caused  such  loss  that  it  fell  back 
rapidly  on  Stewart's  brigade  in  the  second  rebel  line,  which  had  just 
moved  to  its  assistance.  In  one  of  its  regiments,  the  Thirteenth  Missis- 
sippi, out  of  a  total  of  350  men,  sixty-two  were  killed  and  132  wounded. 

A  little  later  Sheridan,  being  menaced  by  Cheatham  and  Cleburne 
at  once,  fell  back  to  secure  a  better  position.  From  his  second  position 
his  artillery  flanked  a  portion  of  McCown's  troops,  who  had  attacked 
his  right  wing.  His  shells  bursting  in  the  rear  of  the  Confederates, 
gave  Hardee  to  understand  that  he  could  not  advance  further  without 
danger,  and  that  before  following  up  his  successes  on  the  extreme  left 
it  was  necessary  for  him  to  overcome  the  formidable  adversary  who  by 
his  tenacity  paralyzed  the  whole  movement  of  his  army.  While  bring- 
ing back  his  left  for  the  purpose  of  dislodging  Sheridan,  he  requested 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  89 

Bragg  to  order  the  troops  forming  the  Confederate  centre  to  support 
him.  Withers  received  orders  to  attack  the  Union  troops  posted  before 
him  with  all  his  force. 

It  was  at  this  juncture  that  the  new  movements  ordered  by  Rose- 
crans  for  bringing  the  left  into  line  with  Thomas,  put  Rousseau's  division 
along  the  north  margin  of  the  wood  behind  Sheridan,  so  as  to  support 
him  if  necessary.  Van  Cleve's  division  on  this  new  alignment  of  the 
right,  lay  between  the  wood  and  the  railroad.  Further  to  the  right 
Harper's  brigade  of  Wood's  division  was  placed  ;  the  latter  general 
remaining  in  reserve  with  two  of  his  brigades. 

Quickly  as  the  new  line  was  formed,  it  could  not  prevent  the  Con- 
federates from  winning  some  partial  success.  Rosecrans  proceeded  in 
person  to  Negley's  division,  forming  the  centre  of  this  new  disposition. 
His  arrival  renewed  the  fierce  combat.  Folk's  right  was  vigorously 
executing  its  orders.  Stewart  was  again  attacking  Negley.  Chalmers 
advanced  on  Palmer.  Hardee,  recalling  McCown,  again  attacked 
Sheridan,  who  again  had  to  make  a  second  change  of  front,  more  diffi- 
cult than  were  his  first  manoeuvres,  in  order  to  avoid  being  taken  in 
flank.  Falling  back  a  short  distance  before  the  enemy,  who  was  press- 
ing him  on  every  side,  Sheridan  ordered  his  two  brigades  on  the  right 
to  face  to  the  west,  and  they  found  themselves  back  to  back  with  Neg- 
ley's division.  Roberts'  brigade,  having  turned  toward  the  south,  placed 
itself  at  right  angles  to  these  two  bodies  of  troops,  so  as  to  cover  their 
flank.  This  formation  in  a  sharp  angle,  which  was  only  feasible  in  the 
midst  of  woods,  and  under  the  protection  of  their  thickness,  presented 
a  solid  obstacle  against  the  rebel's  attacks.  In  order  to  render  the  posi- 
tion still  stronger,  Sheridan  had  massed  all  the  cannon  he  had  in  front 
of  Roberts,  which  was  the  point  most  menaced,  and  the  key  to  the  whole 
position.  His  energy  thus  enabled  him  to  resist  for  nearly  an  hour  all 
of  Hardee's  attacks  ;  and  it  may  be  said  that  this  hour  saved  the  Federal 
army  from  an  irreparable  disaster.  In  fact,  while  Folk's  command, 
which  was  obliged  to  charge  Negley's  and  Palmer's  position  in  front 
and  across  large  open  fields,  was  exhausting  itself  in  fruitless  efforts 
against  them,  Rosecrans  had  formed  a  new  line  with  fresh  troops  from 
the  left,  which  alone  could  enable  him  to  check  the  rebel  march. 
Sheridan  could  not  prolong  his  resistance  in  such  a  hazardous  position. 
His  soldiers  were  thinned  out.  Roberts,  Schaefter,  and  Sill  were  killed. 
The  enemy  after  three  fruitless  attacks  still  returned  to  the  charge.  At 
last  ammunition  was  failing  them,  Wharton's  cavalry  having  either 
captured  or  dispersed  all  the  wagon  trains  of  McCook's  corps.  The 


9o  THE  LIFE  OF 

time  had  arrived  for  retiring.  Sheridan  rallied  around  him  the  remains 
of  his  division,  which  left  behind  on  the  ground  so  stubbornly  disputed, 
and  around  the  dismounted  guns  which  could  not  be  taken  along,  1 ,800 
men  killed  or  wounded,  and  proceeded  to  re-form  his  lines  in  the  rear 
of  the  cedar  wood  he  had  so  stubbornly  held. 

Rosecrans  having  formed  his  new  line,  found  himself  at  Sheridan's 
position.  He  at  once  ordered  Rousseau  to  enter  the  cedar  wood,  in 
order  to  prevent  the  enemy  from  taking  his  entire  centre  in  reverse,  and 
to  cover  Negley's  right  flank  in  the  place  of  Sheridan.  The  latter  had 
hardly  withdrawn  before  Rousseau  was  fiercely  assailed,  and  on  every 
side.  The  Federals,  favored  by  the  thickets,  were  able  to  open  a  pas- 
sage for  themselves  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  through  the  enemy's 
lines  which  surrounded  them,  but  they  left  a  great  many  prisoners  in 
their  hands. 

Rousseau  had  formed  his  division  in  column  on  the  right,  in  order 
to  reach  the  position  which  had  been  assigned  him,  and  hardly  had 
time  to  deploy  his  first  .brigade  when  the  latter  met  the  enemy,  to  whom 
the  retreat  of  Sheridan  and  Negley  had  imparted  new  ardor.  This 
brigade,  consisting  of  four  battalions  of  regular  infantry  and  the  Fif- 
teenth Kentucky  under  Colonel  Shepherd,  opened  its  ranks  to  let  the 
fugitives  pass  whom  the  enemy  was  driving  before  him,  and  then 
waited  steadily  for  the  attack.  It  had  just  formed  in  a  clearing  west 
of  the  new  position  Sheridan  had  taken.  The  rest  of  the  division 
found  itself  fronting  the  main  forces  which  had  just  driven  Sheridan 
and  Negley.  The  wood  was  full  of  disbanded  soldiers.  The  enemy 
could  not  be  seen,  but  the  swarms  of  fugitives  told  of  his  approach  ;  all 
the  artillery  blocked  up  the  roads,  and  to  extricate  it,  Rousseau  was 
compelled  to  fall  back,  thus  preventing  a  new  disaster.  While  Shep- 
herd's force  was  covering  his  retreat  by  vigorously  resisting  the  enemy, 
he  sent  the  artillery  away  in  a  semi-circle  and  again  brought  them  to 
the  field  between  the  road  and  the  wood.  Rousseau  then  hastily 
re-formed  his  lines  under  the  fire  of  the  enemy.  Thomas  and  Rose- 
crans hastened  to  the  spot ;  Thomas  directing  his  troops  as  coolly  as  if 
on  parade.  Rousseau's  three  batteries  took  position  on  a  height 
over  which  the  railroad  passes  into  a  cut,  supported  on  their  right  by 
the  engineer  brigade,  which  had  been  keeping  the  hill  alone. 

Rousseau's  brigades  under  Shepherd,  Beatty,  and  Scribner,  extended 
to  the  left  in  front  of  the  turnpike.  In  their  rear,  Sheridan's  and  Has- 
call's  brigades  of  Wood's  division  had  been  detained  on  the  road,  trying 
to  stem  the  current  of  fugitives.  The  Confederates,  invigorated  by  sue- 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  91 

cess,  were  coming  from  the  wood  again.  Although  their  lines  were 
thinned,  they  came  in  perfect  order  and  confident  of  victory. 

While  Cleburne  was  following  Rousseau's  troops,  McCown's  division 
had  taken  a  similar  direction  toward  the  northwest.  By  this  course  it 
would  reach  Burrows'  House.  General  Hardee  led  in  person.  General 
Bragg  had  sent  him  plenty  of  reinforcements  because  his  own  position 
was  not  menaced.  The  reinforcements  could  not  reach  Hardee  before 
2  P.  M.,  and  he  had  to  go  on  fighting  with  troops  that  had  been  under 
fire  all  the  morning.  Rains  (once  Sheridan's  commander  in  Oregon) , 
whose  troops  had  not  been  exposed,  was  placed  fronting  the  hill  held 
by  Rousseau.  Liddel,  McNair,  and  Ector  deployed  on  his  left.  They 
dislodged  Jeff.  C.  Davis'  division  from  the  cedar  wood  and  came  out 
into  the  plain,  to  be  met  by  the  oblique  fire  of  Rousseau's  guns.  Rains 
was  killed  and  his  men  retreated.  There  were  three  other  brigades  in 
great  danger  in  the  clearing,  and  Hardee  was  unable  to  protect  them 
unless  he  brought  all  his  artillery  to  the  front  so  as  to  occupy  that  of  the 
Union  army. 

By  this  time  the  Confederates  were  entirely  exhausted  and  needed 
rest  or  reinforcements.  In  the  centre  they  were  doing  better  because 
they  were  not  so  tired.  As  soon  as  Polk  saw  Negley  driven  out  of 
the  wood  by  Cheatham,  he  sent  Withers  against  Palmer's  division. 
Thomas'  movement  having  uncovered  Palmer's  right,  the  latter  was 
soon  turned  by  Cheatham,  while  Withers  drove  the  brigades  of  Cruft 
and  Grose  back  upon  the  Nashville  road.  From  noon  till  2  o'clock 
the  battle  was  almost  suspended,  preparations  being  made  for  a  last 
effort.  Bragg  decided  not  to  send  the  reinforcements  Polk  had  asked 
for,  concluding  that  they  could  not  be  spared  from  his  right. 

About  2  P.  M.  the  attack  was  renewed.  The  firing  of  musketry  began 
with  fresh  fury.  It  was  growing  late  and  Bragg  in  order  to  secure 
victory  must  possess  himself  of  the  Nashville  causeway  before  dark. 
Toward  3  o'clock  Cleburne  advanced  alone  against  the  position  held  by 
Van  Cleve.  This  was  the  fiercest  hour,  the  rebels  fighting  like  demons. 
The  whole  force  on  both  sides  became  engaged.  Several  Confederate 
regiments  lost  half  their  number  in  a  few  minutes,  and  our  loss  was  very 
heavy,  also.  Rosecrans,  always  at  the  post  of  greatest  danger,  ordered 
his  soldiers  to  "fire  low  and  close."  "  Some  brave  fellows  must  be  sacri- 
ficed for  the  sake  of  victory, —  cross  yourselves  and  march  forward." 
It  was  certainly  not  victory,  says  the  Comte  de  Paris,  but  the  salvation 
of  the  Federal  army.  Not  a  breach  had  been  made  in  its  last  position 
when  the  battle  suddenly  ceased,  just  before  night  spread  her  mantle 


92  GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

over  this  field  of  carnage.  The  fight  had  lasted  ten  hours.  On  the 
Federal  side,  Sheridan  and  Hazen  had  signalized  themselves  among  all 
for  their  indomitable  tenacity.  More^  than  seven  thousand  men  were 
missing  at  roll-call.  Sheridan  nad  lost  one-third  of  his  division. 
When  Sheridan  reported  to  Rosecrans  with  his  shattered  command, 
at  the  time  of  his  withdrawal  later  in  the  day,  the  little  commander  said, 
with  the  big  tears  coursing  down  his  cheeks  :  "  This  is  all  there  is  left  of 
it,  general." 

The  French  writer  has  been  taken  as,  on  the  whole,  the  most  impar- 
tial authority.  His  powerful  description  of  the  great  battle  places 
Sheridan  in  the  foremost  rank  of  our  division  commanders,  and  proves 
again  what  Perryville  so  clearly  developed  —  his  ability  to  hold  the  key 
of  any  position  or  line  to  which  he  should  be  assigned. 

A  song  that  strayed  from  the  rebel  lines  was  altered  and  adopted 
about  these  days,  to  fit  the  estimation  in  which  Sheridan  was  held  by 
his  soldiers,  and  those  of  the  Union  army  generally : 

"  He's  in  the  saddle  now !  fall  in  ! 

Steadily  there,  all  brigades  ! 
Sheridan  calls  — 'Fall  in,  we'll  win 

Our  way  with  ball  and  blades.' 
What  matter  if  our  troops  are  worn  ? 

What  matter  if  our  ranks  are  torn? 
Q^iick  step  now,  Victory  will  dawn  ! 

That's  our  Sheridan's  way." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


MOVING  TOWARDS  CHICKAMAUGA. 

THE  TULLAHOMA  CAMPAIGN — SHERIDAN'S  PART  IN  ROSECRANS'  MOVEMENTS 
—  ALWAYS  ON  TIME  AND  IN  THE  RIGHT  PLACE  —  INCIDENTS  OF  HIS  LIFE 
ON  THE  MARCH  AND  IN  CAMP — ESTIMATED  BY  HIS  MEN — A  POPULAR 
GENERAL  —  A  HARD  FIGHTER  AND  GOOD  TACTICIAN. 

STONE  RIVER  was  named  at  the  time  "  that  great  furnace  of  afflic- 
tion." Its  effect  on  the  country  as  well  as  the  Army  of  the  Cumber- 
land was  immediately  inspiriting.  However  close  a  call  on  Rosecrans 
the  cold  military  critics  of  later  days  may  regard  it,  the  feeling  of  the 
country  was  that  a  great  and  very  important  victory  had  been  won.  It 
came  in  opportunely,  also,  to  strengthen  the  President's  emancipation 
policy,  and  to  inspire  the  people  to  a  renewal  of  continued  exertions. 
The  dawn  of  the  new  year  saw  the  Confederate  army  under  Bragg 
moving  away  rapidly  to  the  southeast.  Tullahoma,  on  the  Tennessee 
River,  became  again  the  rebel  headquarters,  while  the  Union  army 
under  Rosecrans  moved  into  Murfreesboro',  occupying  it  as  a  winter 
camp.  On  the  5th  of  January  the  headquarters  of  the  Army  of  the 
Cumberland  were  established  in  this  now  historic  town  of  Tennessee. 
It  has  since  acquired  another  reputation,  as  the  home  of  the  accom- 
plished writer  who,  under  the  name  of  "Egbert  Craddock,"  has  of  late 
years  made  the  American  public  familiar  with  the  people,  idioms,  and 
scenes  of  that  region. 

General  Rosecrans  received  and  published  to  his  army  the  following 
dispatches  : 

To  MAJOR-GENERAL  ROSECRANS  : 

Your  dispatch  announcing  the  retreat  of  the  enemy  has  just  reached 
here  —  God  bless  you,  and  all  with  you.  Please  tender  to  all,  and  accept 
for  yourself,  a  nation's  gratitude  for  their  skill  and  endurance. 

A.  LINCOLN. 
WASHINGTON,  January  5th,  1863. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  95 

To  MAJOR-GEN.  ROSECRANS  : 

The  field  of  Murfreesboro'  is  made  historical.  You  have  won  the 
gratitude  of  your  country,  and  the  admiration  of  the  world.  All  honor 
to  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland. 

H.  W.  HALLECK. 

General  Rosecrans  in  his  report  of  the  campaign  and  battle  did 
ample  justice,  among  other  mention  and  recommendation,  to  the  services, 
skill,  and  courage  of  Brigadier-General  Sheridan,  whose  promotion  to 
a  major-generalcy  was  asked  and  given.  Our  gallant  soldier  was  but 
thirty-one  years  of  age  when  he  wore  the  double  stars  on  his  shoulders. 
How  he  was  regarded  by  the  enemy  against  whom  he  fought  may  be 
aptly  illustrated  by  the  following  anecdote  : 

A  poor  fellow,  worn  out  in  the  retreat  from  Murfreesboro',  found  an 
old  mule  which  he  got  astride  of.  He  was  without  shoes,  hat,  or  coat, 
and  wore  only  an  old  gray  hunting  shirt  torn  into  tatters  and  a  very 
ragged  pair  of  pants.  But  he  had  his  pipe  in  his  mouth,  and  was 
happy.  Bragg  and  his  private  secretary,  Major  Hunter,  were  coming 
along  the  same  road. 

"  Who  are  you?"  asked  the  Confederate  general. 

u  Nobody,  "  was  the  answer. 

"  Where  do  you  come  from?" 

"  Nowhere." 

"  Where  are  you  going?" 

"  I  don't  know." 

"•  Where  do  you  belong?" 

"  Don't  belong  anywhere." 

"  Don't  you  belong  to  Bragg's  army?" 

"  Bragg's  army  —  Bragg's  army  ?"  replied  the  chap.  "  Why,  he's  got 
no  army  !  One-half  of  it  was  shot  in  Kentucky,  and  the  other  half  has 
just  been  whipped  to  death  by  that  little  whelp  Sheridan,  at  Murfrees- 
boro'." 

Bragg  asked  no  more  questions. 

The  winter  camp  became  a  jolly  one.  There  was  work  to  do  and 
plenty  of  it,  in  making  roads,  bridges,  constructing  earthworks,  repair- 
ing damages,  drilling  new  recruits,  scouting  and  raiding  actively,  and 
in  all  the  multifarious  preparations  for  the  expected  and  longed-for  for- 
ward movement  of  the  spring.  The  songs  and  stories  of  that  winter 
are  abundant  and  interesting  also.  A  little  and  pathetic  incident  is 
narrated  of  the  Stone  River  battle-field  :  While  Sheridan's  division  lay 
along  a  hill  crest  in  the  famous  cedar  wood  he  and  they  held  with 


96  THE  LIFE  OF 

such  courage,  the  birds,  rabbits,  and  wild  turkeys  that  swarmed  in  the 
region  became  so  frightened  at  the  noise  of  the  furious  cannonading  as 
to  come  out  of  their  warrens  and'd6wn  from  their  trees  and  coverts,  to 
creep  beneath  the  soldiers'  coats  and  between  their  legs,  where  they 
lay  cowering  in  fear. 

It  is  told  of  an  Irish-American  volunteer,  one  Mike  Ryan,  then  of 
Company  K,  Twenty-first  Illinois,  that  while  marching  on  the  evening 
before  the  battle  toward  Murfreesboro',  a  grape  shot  whizzed  past  him 
so  close  as  to  cut  away  his  haversack  with  three  days'  rations  in  it. 
Without  falling  out  or  changing  countenance,  Mike  marched  on,  re- 
marking in  a  loud  stage  whisper  : 

-'  Och,  be  jabers,  if  the  inimy  hasn't  flanked  me  and  cut  off  me 
supplies.  What'll  I  do  now,  begorra  ! " 

It  was  a  winter  prolific  of  song.  A  couple  of  verses  will  show  the 
quality  and  illustrate  the  feelings  of  our  soldiers  : 

"  When  those  we  love  request  a  sign 

For  words  as  yet  unspoken, 
That  sign  shall  be,  Remember  me, 

And  a  Rosey  wreath  for  token. 
And  now  may  roses  crown  our  land, 

May  blissful  peace  soon  come,  sirs; 
May  Bragg-ing  traitors  soon  be  damned, 

And  we  in  peace,  at  home,  sirs. 
Come,  boys,  fill  up  the  brimming  cup, 

We'll  toast  the  Union  ever. 
Our  health,  the  man  that  can  Bragg  tan, — 

The  hero  of  Stone  River." 

Again,  we  have  a  ruder  refrain,  but  equally  as  catching : 

"  I'll  sing  you  a  song  to  suit  the  times, 

Called  'bobbin'  around,'  '  bobbin'  around,' 
You'll  see  dar's  reason  in  the  rhymes 

As  they  go  bobbin'  around. 
Ole  Rosey's  down  in  Tennessee, 

Bobbin'  around,  bobbin'  around  ; 
And  settin'  all  the  darkies  free 

As  he  goes  bobbin'  'round. 
The  big  Secesh  no  more  will  be 

'Bobbin'  around,'    'bobbin'  around,' 
For  Rosey's  down  in  Tennessee, 

An'  he  am  '  bobbin'  around.'  " 

General  Rosecrans  on  the  5th  of  January,  1863,  was  in  Murfrees- 
boro' with  Rousseau's  and  Negley's  divisions  of  Thomas'  corps.  The 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN.  97 

five  days  preceding  were  full  of  great  activity  and  severe  fighting,  as 
Stanley's  cavalry  and  brigades  from  Crittenden's  corps  followed  on  the 
rear  of  the  rebel  army,  who  retreated  along  the  Manchester  and  Shelby  - 
ville  pikes.  The  Confederate  cavalry  was  untiring  and  very  bold  in  its 
efforts  to  defend  Bragg's  rear  and  retreat.  They  even  made  feints  of  threat- 
ening Nashville.  Generals  Boyle  and  Wright,  commanding  in  Kentucky, 
did  their  utmost  to  assist  Rosecrans  by  placing  expeditions  in  the  field 
to  attack  and  pursue  Morgan  and  other  Confederate  raiders.  The  gen- 
eral government  did  not  content  itself  with  congratulations  only,  but 
hurried  to  Rosecrans  all  the  forces  available.  On  the  loth  of  January 
the  returns  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland  showed  a  force  "  present 
and  absent,"  of  117,837  rank  and  file,  including  all  arms  of  the  service. 
This  roster  shows  the  effective  force  to  have  been  60,916.  Some 
fourteen  thousand  fresh  troops  were  at  this  time  sent  forward  from  Ken- 
tucky, under  command  of  Major-General  Gordon  Granger.  They 
consisted  of  twenty  regiments  of  infantry,  four  of  cavalry,  and  four  bat- 
teries. The  divisions  and  brigades  were  commanded  by  such  soldiers 
as  Baird,  Crook,  Judah,  Gilbert,  and  Carter.  Orders  were  issued  for 
the  purchase  of  horses  and  equipments  wherewith  to  mount  infantry,  a 
movement  which  soon  became  of  great  value  to  the  Union  cause. 

On  the  Confederate  side  it  was  seen  that  the  result  of  the  battle  of 
Stone  River  was  disastrous  to  their  operations  in  the  Central  South,  and 
that  it  threatened  alike  their  positions  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  and  East 
Tennessee.  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston  was  in  chief  command  of  the 
army  and  territory  of  Mississippi  under  Pemberton,  against  whom  Grant, 
Sherman,  and  Banks  were  operating  in  movements  that  culminated  at 
last  in  the  capture  of  Vicksburg  and  Port  Hudson,  also  of  Alabama, 
Georgia,  and  South  and  East  Tennessee  ;  Kirby  Smith  holding  the  lat- 
ter important  military  section,  with  Chattanooga  and  Northern  Georgia. 
Braxton  Bragg  was  in  command  of  the  central  section,  having  Polk 
and  Hardee  under  him  as  chief  field  commanders.  At  Tullahoma,  on 
the  20th  of  January,  1863,  his  effective  force  was  reported  at  31,215 
infantry  and  artillery,  with  8,615  cavalry,  under  Morgan,  Wharton, 
Wheeler,  and  Forrest.  This  made  a  total  force  under  Bragg  direct,  of 
39,830  rank  and  file.  The  same  roster  reports  as  present  and  absent, 
67,117  infantry  and  14,350  cavalry  —  a  total  of  81,468  rank  and  file. 
This  is  a  difference  of  41,638  between  the  nominal  and  effective  forces. 
The  Confederates  acknowledged  a  loss  in  killed,  wounded,  and  missing, 
of  about  fifteen  thousand.  Their  own  returns  show  the  loss  must  have 
been  nearer  twenty-five  thousand,  allowing  the  balance  of  the  41,000 


98  THE  LIFE  OF 

deficiency  for  post  and  other  field  duty.  McCown's  division  of  Kirby 
Smith's  army  was  at  Shelby ville,  breathing,  after  its  hard  and  splendid 
fighting  at  Stone  River.  Its  returns,  dated  January  1 7th,  show  an  effective 
force  of  but  3,940,  while  the  roster  of  "  present  and  absent  "  is  given  at 
7, 71 2,  showing  a  decrease  of  2, 486  rank  and  file.  This  is,  doubtless,  a  fair 
statement  of  its  actual  loss.  According  to  Johnston's  dispatches  to  the 
Confederate  War  Department,  Bragg  wanted  20,000  fresh  troops. 
There  were  but  42,000  in  the  Department  of  the  Mississippi,  and  about 
25,000  under  Kirby  Smith.  Chattanooga  was  transferred  to  Bragg's 
command  and  the  long  tussle  began  for  its  possession,  which  was  to 
end  in  the  late  fall  by  the  overwhelming  defeat  of  Bragg  at  Mission 
Ridge.  It  was  a  long  road  thereto,  however,  and  the  Union  interest 
centered  for  the  next  five  or  six  months  on  Rosecrans  and  Grant, —  one 
preparing  at  Murfreesboro',and  the  other  pounding  away  at  Vicksburg. 
As  Sheridan  remained  with  "Rosey,"  attention  must  be  again  turned 
to  the  operations  at  and  from  that  point. 

The  esteem  in  which  the  gallant  young  major-general  was  held  by 
those  who  were  nearest  to  him  is  illustrated  not  only  by  the  unbroken 
record  of  commendation  he  received  from  commanding  officers,  but 
by  the  following,  among  other  incidents  :  About  this  date  the  officers 
of  his  division  surprised  him  with  a  testimonial  of  their  regard.  A 
magnificent  sword,  the  blade  being  exquisitely  wrought,  with  jeweled 
hilt  and  gold-plated  scabbard,  while  the  sword  belt  was  woven  with 
bullion,  with  a  silver  mess  service,  a  case  of  elegant,  ivory-handled, 
silver-mounted  Colt's  revolvers,  and  a  major-general's  saddle,  bridle, 
and  trappings,  the  whole  costing  not  less  than  $2,000,  were  presented 
to  him.  The  presents  were  rendered  the  more  acceptable  and  valuable 
by  the  evidences  of  goodwill  and  confidence  with  which,  in  written  and 
spoken  words,  they  were  accompanied. 

General  Sheridan  has  always  been  a  man  of  idiosyncrasies,  and  one 
of  them,  at  this  time,  was  a  great  aversion  to  walking  with  old  ladies. 
One  very  rainy  day  he  met  an  old  lady  who  wanted  him  to  escort  her 
where  she  was  going. 

"  Excuse  me.,  madam,"  said  he,  "  but  it's  raining  too  hard." 

Another  time  he  met  the  same  old  lady,  who  said:  "It's  clearer 
now,  general." 

44  Yes,  clear  enough  for  one,  but  not  clear  enough  for  two,  yet," 
was  the  response. 

Here  is  another  illustration  of  his  peculiarities :  A  stupid  and 
garrulous  person  after  babbling  some  time  to  Sheridan,  said  : 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  99 

"  Sir,  I  fear  I  have  been  intruding  on  your  attention." 
"  No,  no,"  said  Sheridan,  "  I  haven't  been  listening." 
After  the  occupation  of  Murfreesboro',  though  the  army  settled  to 
camp  life,  there  was  work  to  be  done.  Railroads  were  rebuilt  and 
bridges  constructed  across  Stone  River.  Earthworks  surrounding  the 
town  were  built.  Foraging  trains  scoured  the  country  in  every 
direction.  So  passed  the  months  of  winter  and  spring,  the  quiet  of 
camp  life  being  broken  every  now  and  then  by  the  going  out  or  coming 
in  of  foraging  and  raiding  parties.  The  enemy  was  not  idle  either. 
Their  chief  object  was  to  cut  off  communications  and  interrupt  our 
supplies. 

On  the  3ist  of  January,  Brigadier-General  Jeff.  C.  Davis,  with  his 
infantry  division  and  the  second  brigade  of  cavalry  (1,328  men),  under 
command  of  Colonel  Minty,  left  camp  for  an  extended  scout  in  the  di- 
rection of  Rosser,  Eagleville,  and  Franklin.  Colonel  Minty  was  ordered 
to  Versailles,  where  General  Davis  was  to  form  a  junction  with  him. 
They  went  to  Rosser.  A  Confederate  cavalry  force  of  four  hundred 
was  found  and  attacked.  Some  fifty  of  them  were  captured,  and  the 
balance  dispersed.  Not  hearing  from  Davis,  Colonel  Minty  proceeded 
to  Unionville,  driving  the  enemy  out  of  that  town.  Colonel  Dan 
McCook  now  sent  a  messenger  to  say  he  had  taken  Middletown,  and 
captured  Colonel  Douglass.  After  passing  through  Peytonville,  Pop- 
lar Grove,  Franklin,  Kinderhook,  and  Charlotte,  where  he  camped  one 
night,  he  proceeded  on  the  road  to  Centerville,  capturing  a  colonel  and 
major  upon  Forrest's  staff,  two  lieutenants  and  twenty-three  men  of 
Forrest's  and  Wharton's  escort,  one  of  them  a  courier  bearing  dis- 
patches. This  expedition  lasted  till  the  middle  of  February,  1863. 
On  the  3d  of  February,  the  Confederate  Generals  Wheeler,  Forrest, 
and  Wharton,  at  about  1.30  P.  M.,  sent  a  flag  of  truce  to  Palmyra,  de- 
manding the  surrender  of  the  post  and  garrison,  which  consisted  of  nine 
companies  of  the  Eighty-third  Illinois,  a  battalion  of  the  Fifth  Iowa  Cav- 
alry, Flood's  battery,  and  some  wounded  men.  The  surrender  was 
promptly  refused,  and  Colonel  Harding,  commanding,  at  once  began 
preparations  for  defense.  The  fighting  was  very  severe,  and  the  Con- 
federates were  defeated  over  and  over  again  in  their  attacks.  Their  loss 
was  250  killed,  155  of  whom  were  buried  by  our  forces,  600  wounded, 
and  105  prisoners. 

On  the  4th  of  March  an  expedition  under  Colonel  Coburn  was 
ordered  to  move  on  Spring  Hill,  from  Franklin,  ten  miles  south  of 


ioo  THE  LIFE  OF 

and  thirty  miles  from  Nashville.  About  four  miles  out  it  met  the 
enemy,  and  had  a  sharp  skirmish.  At  Thompson's  Station,  on  the  next 
day,  they  had  another  severe  skirmish-.  It  soon  became  evident  that 
Colonel  Coburn  had  encountered  the  whole  of  Forrest's  and  Van 
Dorn's  forces.  JAfter  severe  righting  on  both  sides,  Coburn  was  com- 
pelled to  surrender,  and  he  and  his  men  ( i  ,306)  were  made  prisoners 
and  sent  south.  The  engagement  is  known  as  the  battle  of  Spring 
Hill.  While  this  battle  was  being  fought,  General  Sheridan  with  his 
division  and  Colonel  Minty  with  a  force  of  863  cavalry,  were  out  on 
a  ten  days'  scout.  Colonel  Minty  drove  the  enemy  out  of  Rosser  and 
Unionville,  pursuing  them  to  within  five  miles  of  Shelbyville,  where 
McCown's  division  had  its  headquarters.  The  colonel  then  fell  back 
to  Eagleville,  and  was  joined  there  by  Sheridan  on  the  morning  of 
the  5th  of  March.  On  the  6th  and  yth  he  moved  towards  Triune  and 
Unionville.  On  the  8th  he  arrived  in  Franklin.  On  the  9th  he 
marched  on  to  Carter's  Creek  pike  to  form  a  junction  with  General  G. 
Smith  near  Thompson's  Station.  Six  miles  out  the  enemy  was  met, 
but  after  a  short,  sharp  skirmish  they  were  driven  from  the  field.  Sheri- 
dan camped  that  night  at  Springfield.  The  next  day  Rutherford's 
Creek  was  forded,  Forrest's  cavalry  disputing  the  passage.  They  soon 
fell  back  and  were  pursued  for  five  miles  toward  the  Lewisburg  pike. 
Upon  reaching  Duck  River  it  was  found  that  Van  Dorn's  whole  force 
had  crossed.  On  the  afternoon  of  the  I4th  the  expedition  got  back 
to  Murfreesboro',  having  developed  the  strength  and  intentions  of  the 
Confederate  commanders.  Colonel  A.  S.  Hall  was  sent  out  on  the 
1 8th  of  March  with  mounted  infantry,  and  made  a  bold  stand  at  Milton, 
fighting  General  J.  H.  Morgan  and  completely  routing  him.  This  was 
the  first  thorough  defeat  the  rebel  raider  had  met  with.  Hall  got  back  to 
camp  on  the  2 1  st  and  was  warmly  congratulated  for  his  gallant  fight.  On 
the  ist  of  April  Colonel  Wilder  started  out  with  the  Fifteenth,  One  Hun- 
dred First,  and  One  Hundred  Twenty-third  regiments  Illinois  Infantry. 
He  scoured  the  country  in  all  directions,  and  on  the  second  night  con- 
centrated his  force  at  Lebanon.  He  took  possession  of  Rome  and 
Carthage  on  the  next  day.  Here  he  found  many  Union  families  desti- 
tute, while  the  rebels  had  plenty.  The  goods  of  the  latter  were  distrib- 
uted among  the  former.  To  one  a  dollar's  worth  of  captured  cotton 
yarn  would  be  thrown,  to  another  a  tired-out  horse  or  mule  would  be 
given.  Able-bodied  negroes  who  chose  to  accompany  the  army  were 
promised  work  and  clothes,  and  a  large  number  accompanied  his  return. 
While  Wilder  was  making  this  raid  he  was  marching  by  a  place  where 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  101 

an  active  and  bitter  rebel  was  at  work  getting  in  his  fat  cattle.  He 
looked  rather  astonished  when  our  cavalry  advance  was  followed  by  his 
horses.  The  quartermaster  then  came  next  with  his  mules  and  the  con- 
tents of  his  corn-cribs.  When  the  commissary  marched  by  with  all  his 
extra  fat  cattle,  the  rebel  farmer  was  in  great  alarm,  and  wanted  to  know 
if  they  were  not  going  to  pay  him  for  his  goods. 

u  We  are  not  paying  money,  at  present,  to  any  one,"  blandly  an- 
swered Wilder,  "  but  we  will  give  you  a  receipt  for  all.  Providing 
you  prove  at  the  close  of  the  war  your  loyalty,  you'll  get  your  money 
for  them." 

"  Well,  if  that's  the  case,"  said  the  irate  rebel,  "  they  may  go  to  the 
devil,"  and  turning  to  a  couple  of  darkies  who  were  looking  on  with 
open  mouths,  he  administered  to  them  a  few  good  kicks,  exclaiming, 
"  D — n  you,  go  to ." 

On  the  loth  of  April  Major-General  Gordon  Granger,  with  two 
divisions,  fought  the  rebels  at  Franklin.  The  necessity  upon  them  of 
relieving  Mississippi,  then  feeling  the  effects  of  Grant's  operations,  had 
compelled  them  to  assume  the  offensive  against  Rosecrans.  But  they 
had  to  fall  back  for  want  of  provisions  and  ammunition.  On  the  2Oth 
of  April  McMinnville  was  captured  by  our  cavalry.  On  the  2yth  a  bril- 
liant dash  was  made  upon  a  camp  of  rebels  at  Carter's  Creek.  About 
one  hundred  and  fifty  prisoners  were  taken,  all  of  the  First  Texas  Legion, 
as  many  horses,  one  hundred  mules,  eight  wagons,  and  an  ambulance. 

For  several  months  there  was  an  almost  complete  lull  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Cumberland,  on  both  sides.  Murmurs  were  heard  against 
Rosecrans'  alleged  inactivity.  At  last,  on  the  23d  of  June,  that  general 
issued  orders  for  an  advance  in  force  upon  the  enemy  the  following 
morning  at  daybreak.  He  sent  the  lesser  part  of  the  army  toward 
Shelbyville,  to  make  a  feigned  movement  in  that  direction,  while  the 
decisive  blow  was  to  be  struck  by  rapidly  marching  with  the  principal 
body  upon  the  enemy's  right,  turning  of  pushing  it  out  of  the  way,  and 
thence  moving  quickly  via  Manchester,  upon  Tullahoma,  seizing  the 
Confederate  base  at  the  lines  of  retreat,  and  their  communications  from 
that  point,  the  object  being  to  force  them  to  fight  on  our  own  terms  or 
scatter.  To  General  McCook's  troops,  the  Twentieth  Army  Corps, 
the  task  of  making  the  first  formidable  attack  was  assigned. 

The  third  division  of  the  Twentieth  Corps  was  under  arms  before 
sunrise  on  the  24th  of  June.  Owing  to  a  delay  in  receiving  marching 
orders,  General  Sheridan's,  which  was  to  have  had  the  advance,  did 
not  get  under  way  on  the  Shelbyville  road  until  about  7  A-  M-  It 


102  THE  LIFE  OF 

marched  over  that  road,  preceded  by  five  companies  of  the  Thirty-ninth 
Indiana  Mounted  Infantry,  under  Lieutenant-Colonel  Jones,  until  it 
came  in  sight  of  the  enemy's  outposts/when  it  halted  and  bivouacked, 
according  to  orders,  in  the  woods  on  each  side  of  the  road,  paying  no 
attention  to  the  desultory  musketry  and  artillery  fire  the  rebels  opened 
on  it  at  intervals.  Johnson's  and  Davis'  divisions  turned  to  the  left  when 
six  miles  out,  and  took  the  road  to  Liberty  Gap.  Up  to  this  date  the 
weather  had  been  fine  and  clear,  but  ,when  the  troops  marched  out  of 
camp  the  rain  commenced  falling  heavily. 

Before  daybreak  on  the  same  day  Colonel  Wilder's  mounted  infantry 
struck  tents  and  were  soon  in  motion  along  the  pike  leading  to  Man- 
chester. Colonel  Reynolds  with  the  remainder  of  that  division  followed. 
Later  in  the  day  Generals  Negley  and  Rousseau,  of  the  Fourteenth 
Corps,  followed  in  the  same  direction.  Colonel  Wilder  was  sent  forward 
to  within  a  few  miles  of  Hoover's  Gap.  Nine  miles  from  Murfreesboro', 
the  advance  guard  came  upon  the  enemy's  pickets.  Two  companies 
were  deployed  as  skirmishers  and  the  column  moved  forward,  driving 
the  Confederates  before  it.  From  prisoners,  Colonel  Wilder  learned 
that  the  works  commanding  Hoover's  Gap,  constructed  by  Bushrod 
Johnston,  were  not  occupied.  He  determined  to  take  possession  of 
them  before  knowledge  of  our  movements  could  reach  Bragg.  This 
he  accomplished,  taking  several  prisoners.  Hoover'.s  Gap  afforded 
strong  defensive  points,  but  they  were  practically  unused.  Colonel 
Wilder  hurried  forward  and  took  position  on  the  hill  commanding 
the  road  and  the  enemy's  camp.  By  this  move  he  captured  a  train 
of  nine  wagons,  a  drove  of  fine  cattle,  and  fifteen  prisoners.  The 
long-roll  was  heard  in  the  rebel  camp  soon  after,  and  Wilder  deployed 
his  men  for  battle.  Captain  Lilley  hurried  his  battery  forward  to  a 
cleared  eminence,  while  the  Twenty-third  Illinois,  under  Colonel 
Monroe,  was  moved  up  to  the  battery's  support.  The  Seventy-second 
Indiana  formed  near  ;  Colonel  Jordan,  of  the  Seventeenth  Indiana,  also 
took  position,  and  Colonel  Funkhouser,  with  the  Ninety-eighth  Illinois, 
formed  some  distance  to  the  right  but  on  the  same  ridge.  Soon  after, 
the  firing  of  artillery  announced  the  opening  of  battle,  and  the  rebels 
replied  directly.  Five  regiments  of  their  infantry  rose  from  the  low 
ground  near  the  stream  and  came  charging  across  the  rolling  but  open 
field  toward  the  Seventeenth  Indiana.  They  approached  within  range 
and  received  a  volley  that  checked  but  did  not  stay  their  charge.  Sup- 
posing our  guns  exhausted,  a  cheer  followed  the  report,  and  they  moved 
on.  Again  Wilder's  Spencer  rifles  (twelve-shooters)  poured  in  their 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  ioj 

rain  of  bullets,  and  still  the  enemy  pressed  on.  They  were  nearing  the 
line  in  large  force,  and  the  colonel  was  looking  anxiously  for  assistance. 
Ultimate  capture  seemed  inevitable.  Not  a  man,  however,  left  our 
lines.  Just  as  hope  was  giving  way,  successive  volleys  on  the  right 
announced  reinforcements.  The  united  firing  of  the  Ninety-eighth  and 
Seventeenth  regiments  sent  the  enemy  flying  from  the  field. 

The  importance  of  this  victory  was  seen  by  the  general  command- 
ing. He  said,  "  Wilder  has  saved  us  thousands  of  men."  The  loss  in 
two  hours  of  fighting  was  sixty-three  killed  and  wounded.  The  rebel 
forces  engaged  were  Liddel's,  Wharton's,  and  Bate's  brigades,  number- 
ing fifteen  regiments.  During  this  time  brilliant  work  was  being  done 
at  Liberty  Gap,  through  which  Major-General  McCook  was  to  pass  in 
advancing  upon  Cleburne's  division.  General  Benjamin  Harrison,  in 
advance  with  one  battalion  of  the  Thirty-ninth  Indiana  Mounted 
Infantry,  discovered  a  force  of  about  eight  hundred  rebel  infantry  at 
about  i  P.  M.,  near  the  gap.  General  Willich  led  our  column.  It  pushed 
on  under  a  heavy  fire  through  the  open  fields,  with  loud  cheers,  and  soon 
drove  the  rebels  in  precipitate  flight,  capturing  their  tents,  baggage,  and 
supplies.  General  Johnson  ordered  Willich  to  rally  and  briefly  rest  his 
brigade.  Colonel  Baldwin  took  the  lead  and  cleared  the  upper  edge 
of  the  gap.  Advancing  rapidly  he  soon  found  the  enemy  in  force,  a 
brigade  of  infantry  and  a  battery  of  artillery  being  in  a  strong  position 
on  each  side  of  the  road.  Placing  the  Louisville  Legion  (Fifth  Ken- 
tucky) on  the  right  and  the  Sixth  Indiana  on  the  left  of  the  road,  with 
skirmishers  in  front,  and  the  Ninety-third  Ohio  as  a  reserve,  and  direct- 
ing a  section  of  the  Fifth  Ohio  Battery,  under  Lieutenant  Ellison,  to 
engage  the  rebel  battery,  Baldwin  made  an  attack  under  a  severe  fire. 
After  a  sharp  conflict  the  enemy  was  driven  out  and  he  occupied 
their  position  in  fine  style.  The  following  day  General  Johnson  held 
the  position  his  men  had  won  the  day  before.  In  the  forenoon  Willich's 
brigade  was  ordered  to  picket  duty  on  the  front.  After  two  or  three 
trifling  skirmishes,  an  attack  in  force  was  made  on  our  lines.  Counter- 
charging, we  drove  them  several  miles.  About  3  o'clock  the  am- 
munition of  the  Thirty-second  Indiana  and  the  Eighty-ninth  Illinois 
giving  out,  General  Willich  ordered  the  Fifteenth  Ohio  to  advance. 
They  divided  up  their  ammunition  with  the  two  former  regiments  and 
thus  kept  the  enemy  in  check.  Soon  after  Willich  ordered  the  Forty- 
ninth  Ohio  behind  the  centre  of  the  line,  and  placed  Goodspeed's  bat- 
tery on  the  hill,  where  it  did  very  good  service.  About  the  same  time 
Willich  sent  word  to  General  Johnson  that  the  fight  was  becoming 


io4  THE  LIFE  OF 

serious.  Between  five  and  six  the  ammunition  of  the  Fifteenth  Ohio, 
the  Thirty-second  Indiana,  and  the  Eighty-ninth  Illinois  was  entirely 
exhausted.  General  Willich  then  ordered  the  Forty-ninth  Ohio  to 
charge.  General  Johnson  in  the  absence  of  General  Davis,  who  was 
sick,  had  ordered  Carlin's  brigade  of  the  First  Division  to  the  support 
of  the  Second  Brigade.  Advancing  across  the  valley  with  a  dash,  it 
came  up  on  the  right  of  the  latter.  General  Davis  having  left  his  sick- 
bed upon  the  first  sound  of  battle,  arrived  in  front  just  in  time  to  see 
this  charge  of  his  men.  Shortly  after  the  appearance  of  Carlin's  bri- 
gade the  enemy  abandoned  the  contest.  The  order  being' to  check,  not 
attack  them,  the  fighting  ceased. 

The  two  gaps  in  the  Cumberland  Range,  Liberty  and  Hoover's,  were 
the  keys  of  this  position,  and  their  loss  to  the  enemy  at  once  determined 
him  to  retreat.  Upon  obtaining  these  facts,  on  the  istof  July,  General 
Rosecrans,  perceiving  that  he  could  go  through  them  and  flank  Bragg 
at  Tullahoma,  at  once  threw  his  whole  force  forward  in  rapid  pursuit, 
Thomas  moving  on  the  Manchester  road  and  McCook  on  the  one  toward 
Tullahoma.  The  division  of  General  Negley  encountered  the  rear  of 
Hardee  at  a  point  about  four  miles  north  of  Elk  River,  and  skirmished 
with  it  all  day.  The  enemy's  rear  guard  under  Wheeler  made  a  stub- 
born resistance,  enabling  his  trains  to  get  beyond  the  river.  During  the 
night  by  great  exertion  Bragg  drew  off  his  reserve  of  artillery  —  twenty- 
six  pieces  —  across  Elk  River,  at  Estelle  Springs,  and  reached  Tin 
Mountain.  They  burned  the  bridges  on  both  roads,  and  the  rear  guard 
took  up  positions  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Elk.  The  heavy  rains 
had  also  swollen  the  river  to  a  great  height.  General  Crittenden  wnth 
his  corps  was  sent  by  a  rapid  march  to  take  possession  of  the  road 
leading  from  Deschard,  via  Tracy  City,  to  Chattanooga.  This  move- 
ment was  successful,  and  forced  the  enemy  to  take  roads  across  the 
mountains.  On  the  morning  of  the  3d,  General  McCook  crossed  at 
the  mouth  of  Rock  Creek,  below  Bragg's  position,  in  front  of  our 
right,  and  thus  flanked  the  road  to  Winchester  and  the  mountains.  At 
the  upper  bridge,  under  Negley,  a  similar  movement  was  made,  with 
still  better  success.  Rousseau  and  Brannan  were  sent  to  the  upper 
crossing  to  come  down  on  the  rear  of  the  enemy,  whom  Negley  was  to 
detain, —  not  to  drive.  It  was  thought  that  Rousseau  could  cross  by 
10  o'clock  ;  but  the  swollen  state  of  the  river  prevented  that,  and  only 
a  few  troops  got  over  in  time.  In  the  meanwhile  a  cavalry  brigade 
came  in  upon  the  rebels'  right  flank.  Their  firing  was  mistaken  for 
that  of  Rousseau,  and  Negley  opened  with  two  batteries  on  the  rebel 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  105 

position,  i ,000  yards  distant.  The  first  fire  dismounted  one  gun  and 
killed  several  of  their  gunners.  They  were  taken  completely  by  sur- 
prise and  made  very  little  resistance,  retreating  precipitately  to  the 
mountains.  General  Turchin  had  engaged  the  rebel  right,  and  after  a 
fight  of  two  hours  drove  it  and  the  entire  rebel  force  from  the  field. 
The  troops  were  thus  enabled  to  cross  on  the  morning  of  the  3d. 
They  moved  only  a  short  distance,  Negley  encamping  on  the  battle- 
field, and  Rousseau  and  Brannan  on  the  bank  of  the  river.  McCook  in 
the  meantime  advanced  and  occupied  Winchester,  Deschard,  and 
Cowan.  On  the  morning  of  July  4th  our  whole  force  advanced  to 
the  foot  of  the  mountains  at  Cowan,  to  find  the  enemy  in  full  retreat 
on  Chattanooga.  Meanwhile  Generals  Stanley  and  Granger  marched 
on  and  took  possession  of  Shelbyville,  meeting  with  little  opposition, 
and  capturing  several  guns  and  300  prisoners.  The  Union  citizens  of 
Shelbyville  greeted  our  troops  with  waving  of  flags  and  great  delight. 
Bragg's  retreat  demoralized  his  army.  This  was  shown  by  incidents 
like  the  following : 

Some  of  our  men  pushed  to  Elk  River  to  repair  a  bridge.  While 
one  of  the  men  was  bathing,  five  of  Bragg's  soldiers,  guns  in  hand,  came 
to  the  bank  and  took  aim  at  the  swimmer,  one  of  them  shouting, 

"  Come  in  here,  you  d d  Yank,  out  of  the  wet !  " 

The  Federal  was  sure  he  was  done  for,  and  at  once  obeyed  the 
order.  After  dressing  himself  he  was  thus  accosted  : 

"  You  surrender  our  prisoner,  do  you?" 

"  Yes,  of  course  I  do." 

"  That's  kind  ;  now  we'll  surrender  to  you,"  and  the  five  stacked 
arms  before  him,  their  spokesman  adding,  "  We're  done  with  'em, 
and  said  '  Good-bye  '  to  old  Bragg.  Now  you  surround  us  and  take  us 
to  your  camp  !  "  It  was  done  accordingly. 

To  return  briefly :  On  the  3d  of  July,  after  Bragg  retreated  from 
Elk  River,  Thomas  and  McCook  advanced  to  Tullahoma,  and  pressed 
hard  on  his  rear,  hoping  to  strike  a  fatal  blow  before  he  reached  the 
Elk  River,  but  they  failed  to  do  so.  The  roads,  cut  up  by  the  re- 
treating army  and  saturated  with  continued  rain,  were  impassable,  and 
Bragg  escaped  across  the  river.  When  the  Elk  was  crossed,  on  the 
3d  of  July,  Sheridan  forced  a  passage  at  Rock  Creek  Ford.  The 
Confederates  having  the  railway  for  use  in  heavy  transportation,  were 
swarming  in  comparatively  light  marching  order  on  the  lofty  and 
rugged  ranges  of  the  Cumberland  Mountains,  by  way  of  Tautallont  and 
University.  Thus  they  were  well  on  their  way  toward  Chattanooga. 


io6  THE  LIFE  OF 

Rosecrans  advanced  his  army  to  near  the  foot  of  these  mountains,  and 
finding  Bragg  had  got  too  far  ahead  to  be  easily  overtaken,  halted  his 
entire  force,  chiefly  on  the  high  tableland  between  Winchester,  Des- 
chard,  Manchester,  and  McMinnville.  On  the  5th  of  July  Van  Cleve, 
who  had  been  left  at  Murfreesboro',  arrived,  and  moved  toward  Mc- 
Minnville. Bragg  pushed  on  over  the  mountains,  crossed  the  Tennes- 
see River  at  Bridgeport,  where  he  destroyed  the  bridge  behind  him,  and 
made  his  way  to  Chattanooga.  Bragg  saw  that  he  must  hold  Chatta- 
nooga, it  being  the  key  to  East  Tennessee,  and,  indeed,  also  of  Northern 
Georgia.  Every  effort  was  afterward  made  for  that  purpose,  even  to 
the  weakening  of  Lee's  army  in  Virginia. 

Rosecrans  now  had  the  control  of  the  railroad  to  Stephenson,  and 
put  it  in  order  under  the  skillful  Colonel  Innis  and  his  Michigan  en- 
gineers. Sheridan's  division  was  advanced  to  the  leading  section  of 
the  road  to  hold  the  same.  Stanley  with  the  cavalry  then  swept 
down  in  a  southwesterly  direction,  by  way  of  Fayetteville  and  Athens, 
Alabama,  to  cover  the  line  of  the  Tennessee  from  Whitesburg  eastward. 
As  forage  was  scarce  in  the  mountain  region  through  which  he  passed, 
Bragg's  troops  having  consumed  the  last  blade  of  grass,  Rosecrans 
delayed  his  march  until  the  Indian  corn  was  large  enough  to  furnish  a 
supply.  Finally  in  the  middle  of  August,  the  army  went  forward  to 
cross  the  Tennessee  to  capture  Chattanooga. 

The  Army  of  the  Cumberland  was  the  centre  of  national  interest. 
Halleck  ordered  Burnside  to  move  down  and  connect  with  Rosecrans, 
and  directed  General  Hurlbut,  at  Memphis,  to  send  all  of  his  available 
forces  to  Corinth  and  Tuscumbia  to  operate  against  Bragg,  should  he 
attempt  a  flank  movement,  and,  if  necessary,  to  ask  Grant  or  Sherman 
at  Vicksburg  for  reinforcements.  He  also  telegraphed  to  the  com- 
mander at  Vicksburg  to  send  all  available  forces  to  the  line  of  the 
Tennessee  River.  Similar  orders  were  sent  to  Schofield  in  Missouri 
and  to  Pope  in  the  Northwestern  Department.  The  commanders  in 
Ohio  and  Kentucky  were  ordered  to  make  every  exertion  to  secure 
Rosecrans'  communications.  It  was  determined  that  Bragg  should  not 
cross  the  Tennessee  River  again. 

There  was  no  effort  spared  to  also  strengthen  Bragg.  Buckner 
was  sent  to  join  him.  Johnston  sent  him  a  strong  brigade  from  Missis- 
sippi under  Walker,  and  thousands  of  prisoners  paroled  by  Grant  and 
Banks  at  Vicksburg,  were  sent  to  swell  his  ranks. 

In  this  way  Bragg  was  rapidly  gathering  a  large  force  in  front  of 
Pigeon  Mountain,  near  Lafayette,  while  Longstreet  was  making  his 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  107 

way  up  from  Atlanta.  His  arrival  increased  the  Confederate  army  to 
80,000  men. 

General  Rosecrans  pursued  his  advantage  and  pressed  on  Chatta- 
nooga. Wilder  was  in  front  of  that  place  on  the  2ist  of  August,  1863. 
He  announced  his  presence  by  throwing  a  few  shells  into  the  town 
from  the  position  which  he  was  occupying.  This  created  a  panic 
among  Bragg's  men.  They  had  a  gang  of  slaves  at  work  fortifying  on 
the  south  side,  but  were  not  at  all  prepared  for  an  attack.  Wilder,  how- 
ever, after  cannonading  all  day,  had  not  waited  for  the  enemy  to  seek 
him  on  the  opposite  heights.  Bragg  recalled  to  Chattanooga,  Ander- 
son's brigade,  which,  posted  in  front  of  Bridgeport,  was  to  oppose  the 
crossing  by  Rosecrans,  of  the  Tennessee  River.  The  place  chosen  by 
Rosecrans  for  a  pontoon  bridge  was  the  ferry  at  Caperton's,  near  Steph- 
enson.  As  this  bridge  would  not  suffice  for  the  entire  army,  Sheridan 
had  undertaken  to  construct  at  Bridgeport  one  of  trestles,  to  be  finished 
as  early  as  the  27th.  Brannan  and  Reynolds  were  also  busy  making 
bridges  for  their  troops  to  cross. 

All  this  could  not  escape  the  attention  of  Bragg.  But  his  attention 
wras  also  distracted  higher  up  by  Hazen,  who  made  a  feint  of  crossing  the 
Tennessee  in  front  of  Harrison,  and  also  by  news  concerning  Burnside's 
movements.  He  sent  part  of  Hardee's  corps  to  guard  the  river  above 
Chattanooga.  Meanwhile  Rosecrans  had  finished  his  preparations, 
Sheridan  began  to  build  the  bridge  at  Bridgeport,  while  Davis  launched 
the  pontoons  at  Caperton's  Ferry. 

Bragg  was  at  last  warned.  He  called  back  Wheeler's  two  divisions, 
placed  Martin  at  Trenton  in  Will's  Valley,  and  Wharton  behind  him, 
near  Chattanooga.  On  the  29th  the  bridges  were  finished  ;  Davis, 
crossing  the  river,  made  the  Caperton's  ferry-boat  fast  to  the  left  bank, 
while  the  cavalry,  fording  a  little  lower,  met  the  Confederate  vedettes 
in  front  of  the  landing  place  and  drove  them  away.  Five  hours  later 
the  infantry  began  to  cross.  Sheridan  found  nothing  confronting  him, 
but  an  accident  caused  the  breaking  of  the  trestle  bridge  at  Bridgeport, 
and  his  troops  were  not  able  to  cross  before  the  2d  of  September. 
Bragg  had  not  annoyed  them  in  any  way,  though  he  was  but  twenty- 
two  miles  distant.  He  afterwards  said  that  up  to  the  3ist  of  August 
he  was  ignorant  of  Rosecrans'  movements.  He  still  gave  his  atten- 
tion to  the  feints  that  were  being  made  above  Chattanooga. 

Rosecrans,  to  deceive  the  enemy  still  more,  on  the  3d  of  September 
gave  to  General  Hazen  the  command  of  Wagner's,  Wilder's,  and 
Minty's  mounted  troops,  which  with  his  own  force,  made  his  command 


io8  THE  LIFE  OF 

about  seven  thousand  strong.  He  was  then  to  make  a  feint  of  crossing 
the  Tennessee.  Hazen  executed  this  order  perfectly.  Moving  with 
his  troops  simultaneously  at  several  crossings,  he  caused  his  artillery  to 
pass  to  and  fro,  and  built  bivouac  fires,  doing  so  well  that  the  Confeder- 
ates thought  they  had  a  whole  army  before  them. 

Davis'  and  Johnson's  divisions  of  the  Twentieth  Army  Corps,  crossed 
on  pontoons  from  the  29th  to  the  3ist  of  August.  The  bridge  at  Bridge- 
port had  to  be  so  strengthened  as  to  enable  Thomas  and  Sheridan  to 
transfer  their  heavy  artillery  and  trains  to  the  southern  shore.  On  the 
2d  of  September,  after  Sheridan  had  crossed  with  his  infantry,  216 
yards  of  the  trestle  work  again  broke  down.  This  was  fixed  by  dint  of 
hard  labor  in  two  days,  and  on  the  4th  of  September,  early  in  the  morn- 
ing, Baird's  division,  followed  by  all  the  artillery  and  wagons  of  the 
Fourteenth  Corps,  filed  over.  Negley  followed  Johnson  at  Caperton's 
Ferry,  and  going  up  the  left  bank  bivouacked  near  Taylor's  store.  He 
had  thus  passed  to  the  rear  of  Sheridan,  who  proceeded  from  Bridge- 
port to  Trenton  in  order  to  effect  a  junction  with  the  other  two  divisions 
of  the  Twentieth  Corps.  On  the  same  day,  McCook  sent  Davis  down 
into  Will's  Valley,  whom  Johnson  had  relieved  on  the  summit  of 
Raccoon  Mountain.  On  the  3d,  each  division  made  a  forward  move- 
ment. On  the  left,  Brannan  and  Reynolds  proceeded  up  the  Nickajack 
Valley,  in  which  was  a  grotto  that  furnished  the  Confederates  with  salt- 
petre. It  was  therefore  very  precious,  and  our  capture  of  it  was  a 
severe  loss  to  the  enemy.  This  force  proceeded  to  Lookout  Creek. 
Negley  toiled  up  the  slopes  of  Raccoon  Mountain.  On  the  right, 
McCook's  three  divisions  occupied  the  eastern  declivity  of  that  mount- 
ain and  descended  easily  into  Will's  Valley,  between  Trenton  and 
Johnspn's  Creek. 

On  the  4th  instant,  two  divisions  of  the  Twentieth  Corps  were  near 
Trenton  with  Sheridan.  By  this  date  all  the  Union  army,  with  the 
exception  of  Hazen's  four  brigades,  had  cleared  the  Tennessee,  and 
were  collected  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Raccoon  Mountain. 

Bragg,  troubled  and  undecided,  had  until  now  remained  inactive. 
On  the  ist  of  September,  he  concluded  to  wait  for  his  enemy  on  the 
plain  to  the  east  of  Lookout  Mountain.  Only  one  serious  motive  could 
justify  this  plan  :  it  brought  him  nearer  to  the  reinforcements  that  were 
promised,  and  by  delaying  the  struggle  gave  them  time  to  arrive.  But 
it  involved  the  evacuation  of  Chattanooga,  which  was  a  necessary  sacri- 
fice if  Stephen's  Gap  was  abandoned  to  the  Union  army.  Long  trains 
carried  to  Atlanta  all  the  material  accumulated  in  Chattanooga  for  two 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  109 

years,  but  the  commanding  general  did  not  yet  set  his  troops  in  motion. 
Polks'  command  had,  however,  taken  the  line  of  march  in  the  direction 
of  Lafayette.  On  the  8th,  the  rear  guard  left  the  works  so  laboriously 
thrown  up  around  Chattanooga.  Next  morning  the  whole  of  Folk's 
corps  was  halting  at  Gordon's  Mills,  on  the  banks  of  the  West  Chicka- 
mauga  River.  Buckner  had  been  left  on  the  Hiawasseetwo  days.  On 
the  yth  of  September  he  received  orders  to  start  at  once  to  the  south. 
Marching  over  forty-four  miles  in  forty-eight  hours,  Buckner  on  the 
9th  arrived  upon  the  banks  of  the  Chickamauga,  and  placed  himself  a  few 
miles  above  Folk's  corps,  on  Anderson's  farm.  On  the  8th,  Wagner's 
outposts  reported  to  Rosecrans  that  the  enemy  appeared  to  be  evacuat- 
ing Chattanooga.  He  immediately  sent  Crittenden  to  ascertain  the 
fact.  On  the  9th,  in  the  morning,  Beatty's  and  Grose's  brigades  climbed 
Lookout  Mountain  to  Summertown,on  the  summit,  and  looking  down, 
saw  Chattanooga  deserted.  At  noon  the  Federal  army  was  occupying 
the  Gate  City  of  the  Confederacy. 

In  this  campaign  Sheridan's  division  did  its  full  share  of  the  heavy 
work  it  required.  Owing  to  the  nature  of  the  operations,  however,  it 
afforded  no  scope  for  that  terrible  tenacity  and  stubborn  fighting  which 
had  marked  him  on  the  battle-fields  of  Perryville  and  Stone  River.  But 
what  the  Tullahoma  campaign  most  fully  developed  was  the  little 
soldier's  ability  to  meet  all  the  exigencies  of  dangerous  marches,  bold 
tactics,  and  daring  engineering  work,  in  the  constant  expectation  of 
sharp  attack  and  severe  fighting.  Nor  was  he  found  wanting  in  any 
one  of  these  emergencie's.  It  has  been  customary  to  consider  Sheridan 
as  a  great  fighter,  and  that  only.  But  the  careful  reviewer  of  his  won- 
derful career  will  find  that  he  could  think  as  well  as  fight ;  plan  as  well 
as  attack ;  consider  conditions  before  moving,  and  that,  in  fact,  his 
apparent  audacity  and  recklessness  in  the  field  itself,  was  based  upon 
the  conditions  preceding  as  well  as  surrounding  him.  Even  as  a  divi- 
sion commander  he  was  not  alone  a  soldier  and  fighter  ;  he  was  a  leader 
and  a  general  also. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


THE  BATTLE  OF  CHICKAMAUGA. 

THE  FIELD  IN  WHICH  SHERIDAN  WAS  TRAINED  —  ROSECRANS'  MOVEMENTS  — 
HOW  THE  COMMANDER  OF  CAVALRY  WAS  MADE  —  THE  DEADLY  CHICKA- 
MAUGA—  SHERIDAN  AND  DAVIS  SAVE  THE  RIGHT  WING  —  HOLDING  THE 
GAP  AT  DRY  VALLEY  —  LONGSTREET's  VETERANS — FIGHTING  CHEATHAM 
AGAIN — ALWAYS  A  POWER  ON  MARCH  AND  FIELD. 

"  OLD  BRAINS  "  planned  in  the  spring  of  1862,  a  campaign  designed 
to  secure  the  control  and  possession  of  Chattanooga.  In  the  early  days 
of  September,  1863,  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland  once  more  un- 
furled the  flag  of  our  Union  over  this  very  important  strategetical 
position.  In  this  narrative,  there  will  be  little  to  do  with  criticis- 
ing, pro  or  con,  the  operations  of  the  commanding  generals.  The 
personal  and  descriptive  features,  with  results,  and  the  action  leading 
thereto,  are  the  objects  of  our  work.  It  is  well,  however,  to  suggest 
that  the  leading  operations  of  the  Union  armies  during  the  years  of 
the  Civil  War,  were  largely  based  upon  grand  strategetical  necessi- 
ties. The  great  topographical  fields  upon  which  their  movements 
were  directed  rendered  this  a  necessity ;  yet  as  a  matter  of  fact  most 
writers  and  critics  have  either  missed  or  avoided  such  important  con- 
siderations in  formulating  their  judgments.  The  Union  campaigns 
have,  as  a  rule,  been  treated  too  often  as  so  many  bold  and  brave,  but 
isolated  endeavors,  while  the  fact  remains  that  each  of  them  was  in  the 
main,  part  of  a  pre-considered  and  pre-arranged  plan  of  action,  looking 
far  beyond  the  immediate  results  it  was  hoped  to  achieve,  and  aiming 
deliberately,  if  successful,  towards  the  occupation  of  some  important 
field  of  operations,  or  to  the  possession,  as  of  Chattanooga,  of  an  espe- 
cially significant  point  or  post  —  a  veritable  "  coign  of  vantage." 

In  general  outlines  the  movements  which  began  in  May,  1862, 
with  the  battle  of  Pittsburg  Landing,  or  Shiloh,  and  closed  with  that 
of  Mission  Ridge,  in  the  fall  of  1863,  must  be  considered  as  among 
the  boldest  of  our  earlier  operations.  They  cleared  Kentucky,  held 
Tennessee  from  Memphis  to  the  Appalachian  Range  ;  opened  the  Mis- 
sissippi River  to  New  Orleans  ;  kept  Missouri  in  the  Union  lines  ;  pre- 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 


1 1 1 


served  Nash- 
ville; kept 
open  the 
Cumberland 
and  Tennes- 
see rivers,  and 
finally  made 
wide  that 
gate  to  Geor- 
gia through 
which  Sher- 
man went 
"  marching  to 
the  Sea,"  and 
thence  swung 
northward  by 
the  left  flank 
through  the 
Carolinas. 

It  was  in 
this  broad 
field,  with  its 
extensive  op- 
erations, its  weighty  responsibilities,  and  its  splendid  action,  that  our 
young  soldier,  General  Sheridan,  was  so  thoroughly  learning  that  great 
"art  of  war,"  which  he  afterward  practiced  under  General  Grant  with 
such  tremendous  vigor  and  magnificent  results  in  the  closing  months  of 
the  civil  conflict.  Sheridan  could  hardly  have  had  a  better  training- 
school,  a  more  fitting  field  of  preparatory  operations.  And  his  record 
therein  shows  how  equal  he  was  to  every  duty.  ' 

General  Grant  is  on  record  at  this  date  in  Sheridan's  career,  as  affirm- 
ing him  to  be  one  of  the  two  best  division  commanders  that  he  knew  of, 
General  Crocker  being  the  other  officer  honored  with  such  commen- 
dation. As  an  illustration  of  the  experiences  through  which  Sheridan 
was  passing,  a  brief  summary  of  what  General  Rosecrans  himself*  de- 
clares to  have  been  the  chief  features  of  the  strategetical  and  fighting 
campaign  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland,  between  October  30,  1862, 
and  the  22d  of  September,  1863,  may  not  be  out  of  place. 

General  Rosecrans  dates  the  commencement  of  his  army's  active 


GEN.  WESLEY   MERRITT. 


ONE    OF    SHERIDAN'S    FAMOUS    GENERALS. 


*"  Campaign  for  Chattanooga,"  Century,  May,  1887,   W.  S.  Rosecrans. 


ii2  THE  LIFE  OF 

service  from  December  26,  1862,  when,  he  says,  it  began  from  Nash- 
ville "  its  movement  for  Chattanooga,  distant  151  miles."  The  battle- 
field of  Murfreesboro',  thirty-two  miles  from  Nashville,  was  fought  over 
and  won,  four  days  later.  Twenty  per  cent,  of  the  Union  forces  were 
killed  or  wounded.  The  Confederates  retired  to  Duck  River,  thirty- 
two  miles  south,  and  established  "a  formidable  intrenched  camp." 
Another  was  also  established  at  Tullahoma,  "  where  the  McMinnville 
branch  intersects  the  main  Nashville  and  Chattanooga  railroad."  It 
was  expected  that  our  forward  movement  would  begin  May  i,  1863. 
General  Burnside,  commanding  Department  of  the  Ohio,  arranged  a 
plan  of  cooperation,  with  Rosecrans  for  the  relief  of  East  Tennessee, 
then  occupied  by  the  Confederate  forces  under  Buckner.  Rosecrans' 
plan  was  as  follows  : 

i  st.     Follow  the  lines  of  the  Nashville  and   Chattanooga   railroad. 

2d.  Manoeuvre  Bragg  out  of  his  intrenched  camps  by  flank  move- 
ments to  the  east  of  him,  fight  and  drive  him  until  he  crossed  the  Ten- 
nessee. 

3d.     Deceive  him  as  to  the  point  at  which  we  should  cross. 

4th.  Manoeuvre  him  out  of  Chattanooga.  Then  fight  him,  choos- 
ing, if  possible,  our  own  battle-field. 

5th.  Burnside's  part  was  to  guard  the  left  flank,  and  enter  East 
Tennessee.  Bragg's  attention  would  thus  be  drawn  northward. 

6th.  These  operations  must  be  so  timed  in  the  driving  of  Bragg  out 
of  Middle  Tennessee  as  not  to  force  him  southward  and  thus  to  the  re- 
inforcement of  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  who  might  thereby  be  able 
to  seriously  imperil  the  Union  army  in  its  operations  about  Vicksburg. 

It  was  this  necessity  that  delayed  Rosecrans'  movements  till  June 
24,  1863.  There  were  seventeen  days  of  severe  rain,  yet  on  the 
4th  of  July,  we  had  occupied  both  the  Duck  River  and  Tullahoma 
camps.  On  the  7th,  Bragg  was  in  full  retreat  over  the  Cumberland 
Mountains.  Rosecrans'  headquarters  were  at  Winchester,  fifty  miles 
east  from  Murfreesboro'.  Middle  Tennessee  was  in  our  full  possession, 
with  the  Nashville  and  Chattanooga  railroad  also.  This  had  been 
achieved  within  fifteen  days,  with  a  loss  on  our  part  of  but  586  killed 
and  wounded.  Chattanooga  is  sixty-nine  miles  from  Winchester,  lying 
on  the  south  side  of  the  Tennessee,  which  is  thereabouts  from  twelve 
hundred  to  twenty-seven  hundred  feet  wide.  The  Cumberland  Mount- 
ains, directly  in  front,  were  to  be  crossed  before  the  river  could  be 
reached.  On  the  north  side,  beyond  the  range,  lay  Sequatchie  Valley. 
East  of  it  the  Waldron  Ridge  is  cut  from  the  Cumberland  Range  by 
the  stream  that  gives  a  name  to  the  long,  narrow  valley.  The  Tennes- 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  113 

see  above  Chattanooga  flows  at  the  base  of  this  ridge.  South  of  it  are 
the  Sand  Mountain  Cliffs,  then  Trenton  Valley  ascends  to  the  plateau, 
while  to  the  east  are  the  long,  precipitous  cliffs  of  Lookout,  a  thou- 
sand feet  above,  stretching  northward  to  the  gap  at  Chattanooga  with- 
out a  single  road  for  twenty-six  miles.  Indeed,  there  is  not  such  a  road 
for  sixty-six  miles,  as  the  first  ascends  at  Valley  Head,  forty  miles 
southward  from  the  Gate  City. 

Rosecrans'  problem  at  Winchester  and  beyond  was  —  (a)  to  de- 
ceive Bragg  as  to  our  crossing  place  ;  (b)  to  repair  the  railroad  with- 
out attracting  his  attention ;  (<:)  to  subsist  troops  and  accumulate 
twenty  days'  rations  at  Stephenson  ;  (d}  to  contract  and  forward  with- 
out attention  large  pontoon  and  trestle  bridges;  (e)  to  a  delay  suffi- 
cient to  secure  the  benefits  of  the  early  corn  feed ;  (/")  in  crossing  the 
river,  to  do  it  so  as  to  endanger  Bragg's  communications  and  compel  him 
thereby  to  fall  back  so  far  that  we  could  select  our  own  field  of  fight 
in  front  of  Chattanooga.  He  was  expected  to  fight  in  force  before  the 
campaign  closed.  Rpsecrans  succeeded,  as  has  been  already  shown, 
up  to  the  possession  of  Chattanooga.  He  claims  it  was  done  unassisted  ; 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  even  being  kept  so  idle  as  to  allow  Lee  to 
send  Longstreet  to  the  assistance  of  Bragg.  The  Army  of  the  Tennes- 
see (Grant's)  did  not' assist,  though  unoccupied,  according  to  Rose- 
crans, since  the  capture  of  Vicksburg.  Burnside's  command  was  kept 
so  far  north  as  not  to  be  of  use,  while  in  the  Gulf  Department  there 
was  no  attempt  made  by  diversions  to  prevent  the  sending  of  reinforce- 
ments to  Bragg,  who  was  in  these  days  aided  to  the  utmost. 

The  story  of  the  Tullahoma  campaign  has  already  been  briefly  told. 
After  Winchester  seven  days  were  occupied  in  crossing  the  Cumber- 
lands.  The  movement  was  so  managed  as  to  appear  to  be  directed 
toward  Knoxville,  while  its  real  purpose  was  the  seizure  of  Bridgeport 
and  Stephenson.  This  was  achieved  by  making  long  bivouacs  in  east- 
erly directions,  but  sufficiently  in  hand  as  to  enable  rapid  concentration. 
The  Confederate  observers  were  easily  deceived.  Our  mounted  men 
descended  into  the  Tennessee  Valley  and  boldly  drove  everything  across 
the  river,  concealing  the  infantry  movements  in  this  wise,  heavy  masses 
of  which,  screened  by  the  timber,  were  prepared  to  descend  and  seize 
the  available  river  crossings.  The  pontoon  bridge  came  from  Nash- 
ville on  the  24th  of  August.  A  trestle  bridge  over  twenty-seven  hun- 
dred feet  in  length  was  also  contracted  for,  and  five  light-draught,  flat- 
bottomed,  stern-wheel  steamers  were  contracted  for  to  run  between 
Bridgeport  and  Chattanooga.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  com- 


ii4  THE  LIFE  OF 

mander  at  Bridgeport,  selected  by  Rosecrans,  was  Philip  H.  Sheridan, 
who  thus  learned  by  actual  service  some  of  the  most  valuable  duties  of 
a  general  officer,  other  than  those  of  actual  fighting  and  maneuvering 
in  the  face  of  an  enemy. 

It  was  McCook's  corps,  the  Twentieth,  which  led  the  southward 
advance  on  the  completion  of  the  first  bridge.  Sheridan  was  there. 
This  advance  placed  a  heavy  force  forty  miles  south  of  Bragg.  It 
naturally  made  him  uneasy,  and  finally  compelled  him,  through  fear  of 
our  permanently  holding  positions  between  him  and  Atlanta,  to  evacuate 
Chattanooga,  which  he  did  on  the  8th  of  September,  1863.  On  the 
9th  the  Twenty-first  Corps  entered,  and  our  cavalry  also  crossed  the 
river.  McCook  and  Thomas  were  both  manoeuvered  so  as  to  threaten  the 
enemy,  who  lay  behind  Missionary  Ridge,  with  headquarters  at  Ross- 
ville. 

Thomas,  with  the  Fourteenth  Army  Corps,  crossed  over  Lookout, 
up  Johnson's  and  down  Cooper's  passes,  putting  himself  in  a  good 
position  at  the  mountain's  foot.  Crittenden  was  in  Chattanooga,  and 
when  Bragg  was  located  behind  Missionary  Ridge,  his  infantry  was 
moved  out.  On  the  1 2th  Bragg  was  found  concentrating  near  Lafayette, 
behind  Pigeon  Mountain.  His  rear  was  discovered  on  the  i3th  near 
the  Chickamauga,  and  Crittenden  was  at  once  placed  in  supporting 
distance  of  Thomas.  McCgok,  with  whom  Sheridan  was  serving,  had 
been  operating  southward,  on  the  possibility  of  Bragg's  retreat  to  At- 
lanta. The  Twentieth  Corps  was  at  once  ordered  to  Thomas'  support. 
Bragg  began  manceuvering  to  get  between  Chattanooga  and  Missionary 
Ridge,  concentrating  on  the  field  of  Chickamauga.  On  the  i8th  Mc- 
Cook was  within  touch  and  came  down  the  mountain.  Thomas,  with 
three  divisions,  moved  northeast  through  the  forest  till  his  command, 
the  centre,  was  placed  across  the  Reed's  Bridge  road,  and  others  leading 
from  Rossville  to  Chattanooga.  Crittenden  was  again  on  the  left  and 
McCook  on  the  right.  Bragg  once  more  hammered  us  from  his  right 
on  our  left.  Crittenden  was  the  cover  for  Chattanooga.  The  supreme 
importance  of  this  fight  was  owing  to  the  overwhelming  topographical 
significance  of  the  position  we  had  just  seized. 

On  the  i8th  of  September  the  two  armies  were  facing  each  other 
on  the  opposite  sides  of  the  Chickamauga,  a  stream  which,  rising  at  the 
junction  of  Missionary  Ridge  and  Pigeon  Mountain,  at  the  southern 
extremity  of  McLemore's  Cove,  flows  by  Crawfish  Spring,  and  at  Lee 
and  Gordon's  Mill  reaches  the  Lafayette  and  Chattanooga  road.  It 
is  an  Indian  name  and  bears  an  ominous  meaning, — "  the  river  of 
death."  Bragg  was  on  the  east,  and  Rosecrans  on  the  west  side  of  this 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  115 

stream.  During  the  night  of  the  i8th  Bragg  concentrated  over  thirty 
thousand  men,  Polk  being  on  his  right,  and  Hood  on  his  left.  He  had 
sent  Wheeler's  cavalry  to  press  Rosecrans'  right,  and  so  draw  attention 
from  his  real  movement,  which  was  aimed  at  our  left.  Longstreet's 
troops  were  arriving  on  the  i8th,  and  were  being  placed  in  posi- 
tion. Longstreet  himself  arrived  at  midnight.  Fighting  began  early 
on  the  I9th,  Thomas  opening.  By  a  continuous  night  march  up  the  Dry 
Valley  road,  with  his  heavy  corps,  followed  by  a  part  of  McCook's 
corps,  he  had  reached  an  assigned  position  on  a  southerly  spur  of 
Missionary  Ridge,  near  Kelley's  Farm,  on  the  Lafayette  and  Rossville 
road,  facing  Reed  and  Alexander's  burned  bridges,  and  there,  a  mile 
or  two  to  the  left  of  Crittenden's  corps,  early  on  the  morning  of  the 
1 9th,  he  proceeded  to  strike,  without  waiting  to  be  struck.  He  was 
informed  by  Colonel  Dan  McCook,  who  with  his  reserve  brigade  had 
been  holding  that  front  during  the  night,  that  a  Confederate  brigade 
was  on  the  west  side  of  the  Chickamauga,  apparently  alone,  and  as  he 
(McCook)  had  destroyed  Reed's  bridge  behind  them,  he  thought  they 
might  easily  be  captured.  The  attack  was  made  at  once  and  repulsed. 
The  Confederate  brigade  was  supported,  and  the  fighting  was  in  force. 
Cleburne  came  up  to  attack  Thomas'  right,  but  was  driven  back.  The 
attack  on  our  left  was  abandoned  and  the  centre  assailed.  It  was 
pressed  back,  but  being  reinforced,  held  its  ground.  Johnson  from  the 
Twentieth  Corps  reinforced  Thomas.  Negley  went  to  Van  Cleve's 
aid.  Sheridan  had  earlier  been  sent  to  help  Davis.  Night  came  and 
the  battle  proved  indecisive.  After  Longstreet's  arrival,  Bragg  divided 
his  army  into  two  wings,  gave  the  right  to  Polk  and  the  left  to  Long- 
street.  The  order  of  battle,  from  right  to  left,  in  the  first  line,  was 
Breckenridge,  Cleburne,  Cheatham,  then  Stewart,  Hood,  Hindman, 
and  Preston  ;  in  the  second  line,  and  in  reserve,  was  Walker,  Johnson, 
and  McLaws,  from  right  to  left  as  named.  Pegram's  cavalry  was 
placed  on  the  extreme  left.  It  could  do  but  little  in  such  a  broken  and 
wooded  valley.  On  the  2Oth  McCook  still  held  our  right,  his  right 
wing  being  refused  ;  Crittenden  had  his  two  divisions  in  reserve,  and 
in  the  rear  of  the  centre  ;  Thomas  remained  on  the  left,  reinforced  by 
two  divisions  of  Johnson  and  Palmer ;  Brannan  and  Negley  were  in 
reserve.  The  mass  of  our  cavalry  was  on  the  extreme  right.  Granger 
formed  the  principal  reserve  toward  Rossville.  The  preceding  night 
had  been  spent  in  preparation.  Thomas'  troops  made  a  breast-work  in 
their  front.  At  daybreak  an  impenetrable  mist  covered  the  field. 
Rosecrans  intended  to  take  the  offensive,  and  concentrated  his  forces 
more  to  the  left,  which  Bragg  was  still  determined  to  flank,  and  thus 


ii6  THE  LIFE  OF 

get  between  it  and  Chattanooga.  Polk  began  the  battle  as  soon  as  it 
was  light  enough  to  see.  The  whole  line  was  then  pushed  persistently 
against  our  lines. 

At  10  o'clock  Breckenridge's  division,  followed  by  Cleburne's* 
advanced  against  Thomas.  These  attacks  were  made  with  so  much 
energy  that  Thomas  had  to  send  repeatedly  to  Rosecrans  for  help.  He 
at  last  succeeded  in  driving  the  enemy  back  with  great  loss,  and  ad- 
vanced against  Breckenridge's  right.  At  midday  the  Confederate  right, 
except  two  brigades,  was  all  engaged.  The  two  armies  were  thus  in 
full  conflict  upon  a  narrow  neck  of  land.  General  Bragg  waited 
vainly  for  the  demonstration  which  he  thought  his  right  wing  was 
about  to  make,  and  thus  lost  the  best  hours  of  the  morning.  The 
Union  army  appeared  in  force  near  the  Chickamauga,  about  three  miles 
below  Gordon's  Mill.  Bragg  then  thought  it  best  to  weaken  his  cen- 
tre and  strengthen  his  right.  Walker  and  Cheatham  were  sent  to  aid 
Forrest.  Rosecrans  ordered  Crittenden  to  defend  Gordon's  Mills  at  any 
cost.  It  was  a  pivot  for  his  entire  army.  Crittenden's  line  was  a  mile 
in  length.  The  Twentieth  Corps  (McCook's)  ,  Negley's  division  of  the 
Fourteenth  Corps,  and  Mitchell's  cavalry,  were  at  Crawfish  Spring. 
McCook  held  the  right  wing,  and  Rosecrans  sent,  at  10  A.  M.,  John- 
son's division  to  the  aid  of  Thomas.  He  was  watching  the  enemy 
above  Owen's  Ford,  on  the  CattelPs  Gap  road.  The  fierceness  of  the 
battle  on  the  left  soon  enlightened  Rosecrans.  McCook  was  directed 
to  dispatch  Davis'  division  after  Johnson.  Crittenden  had  anticipated 
all  orders  and  was  in  position.  The  Confederate  Virginia  reinforce- 
ments were,  however,  first  in  the  field.  The  Confederate  General 
Govern  had,  under  cover  of  the  mist,  moved  from  Thomas'  left,  to  a 
point  of  attack  on  Baird's  position.  Shortly  after  noon  Baird  encoun- 
tered the  heavy  line  which  took  him  on  the  flank  and  rear.  He  tried 
to  change  his  line  of  battle.  King  and  Brannan  were  close  together. 
Scribner's  brigade  was  most  exposed.  Baird  endeavored  to  form  a  line 
of  battle  on  the  right.  Before  Starkweather  had  time  to  arrange  his 
line  the  Confederates' came  up  on  a  run,  fell  on  him,  captured  his  bat- 
tery, routed  his  troops,  and  after  a  short  struggle  drove  them  back  in 
disorder.  King  found  himself  a  little  on  the  left,  while  changing  front. 
He  was  also  surprised  by  Walthall.  The  remnants  of  this  brigade  were 
driven  upon  Starkweather,  who  had  no  time  to  place  himself  on  the 
defensive.  Liddel  now  concentrated  himself  upon  our  lines.  Stark- 
weather's men  held  their  ground  and  began  a  terrible  resistance,  which 
soon  became  mere  slaughter.  Walker,  with  two  other  brigades,  gave 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  117 

the  order  for  a  new  attack  on  Brannan.  The  latter,  no  longer  sup- 
ported by  King,  saw  his  line  broken  in  the  centre,  and  his  brigades 
were  separated  :  one  brigade  was  cut  in  two.  Starkweather  weakened, 
and  the  Union  situation  became  very  grave. 

General  Palmer  then  united  with  Grose,  Rosecrans  formed  these 
divisions  in  a  quarter  wheel,  with  Hazen  and  Cruft.  Hazen  was  the 
first  to  again  meet  the  rebels.  A  little  before  9  o'clock  he  fell  on 
Govern's  flank  and  extricated  Starkweather's  brigade  from  them. 
Brannan  now  hurled  the  forces  he  had  collected  in  obedience  to  Thomas' 
order,  with  Vandever,  on  the  flank  of  Walthall's  brigade.  The  Con- 
federate lines  thus  taken  on  both  sides,  were  at  once  badly  shaken  ;  the 
assailants  recaptured  most  of  the  enemy's  trophies,  five  pieces  of  the 
regular  battery,  and  all  of  Loomis'  guns,  a  battery  renowned  in  the 
Union  army  on  account  of  its  brilliant  record.  Liddel  quickly  aban- 
doned this  portion  of  the  field.  Brannan  came  to  a  halt.  Hazen  fol- 
lowed Govern  closely,  while  Palmer  brought  forward  to  the  right  his 
two  reserve  brigades. 

At  5  P.  M.  the  Confederates  renewed  the  battle,  Liddel  and  Gist 
charging  on  Reynold's  right.  While  Thomas  was  trying  to  concen- 
trate, they  attacked  Johnson,  Baird,  and  Van  Cleve,  producing  con- 
fusion, and  threatening  the  destruction  of  that  part  of  our  line.  For- 
tunately, General  Hazen  had  been  sent  back  to  the  Rossville  road  to  take 
charge  of  some  artillery.  These  guns  he  quickly  put  in  position  on  a 
ridge,  with  such  infantry  supports  as  he  could  collect,  and  brought  them 
to  bear  on  the  rebels  at  a  short  range.  This  caused  them  to  recoil  in 
disorder,  and  the  day  was  saved  on  our  left.  At  sunset  General  Cle- 
burne  again  charged  on  Johnson's  front  with  a  division  of  Hill's  corps, 
but  secured  no  positive  advantage. 

There  had  been  some  lively  work  on  the  right  (McCook's)  during 
the  day  by  the  artillery,  and  in  an  attack  by  three  of  Bragg's  brigades 
in  succession,  one  of  our  batteries  was  for  a  time  in  possession  of  the 
foe.  But  the  guns  were  soon  recovered.  At  3  p.  M.  Hood  threw 
two  of  his  divisions  on  Davis'  division,  pushing  it  back  and  capturing  the 
Eighth  Indiana  Battery.  Davis  fought  bravely  until  near  sunset,  when 
Sheridan  came  vigorously  to  his  aid.  A  successful  counter-charge  was 
then  made,  the  battery  retaken,  and  a  number  of  prisoners  also  :  Sheri- 
dan's luck,  as  usual.  When  night  fell  on  the  2Oth,  the  battle  ceased. 
We  had  lost  no  ground,  had  repulsed  the  enemy  at  all  points,  and  cap- 
tured three  guns.  But  our  army  was  clearly  outnumbered.  On  the 
morning  of  the  zoth,  Longstreet's  troops  having  all  arrived,  the  Confed- 


ii8  THE  LIFE  OF 

crates  had  70,000  men,*  while  the  Union  army  was  but  55,000  strong. 

Of  Sheridan's  services  on  the  2Oth,  Rosecrans  wrote  (see  Century 
article) ,  after  the  forenoon  fighting,  at  the  time  that  Brannan  was  being 
driven  in,  that  "  Sheridan's  three  brigades  were  ordered  to  the  break, 
but  had  only  force  enough  to  break  a  line  or  two  and  were  obliged  to 
withdraw. 

"  Watching  the  unavailing  efforts  of  Sheridan  to  stem  the  tide,  I  ob- 
served the  long  line  of  Longstreet's  wing  coming  from  the  southeast 
in  line  of  battle,  out-reaching  our  right  (McCook)  by  at  least  half  a  mile. 
I  ordered  Davis  and  Sheridan  to  fall  back  northward,"  to  a  line  indi- 
cated as  a  "  first  good  point  for  defense."  He  then  proceeded  to  the 
rear  of  our  centre,  directing  all  troops  met  to  "join  Sheridan  on  the 
Dry  Valley  road."  At  this  point  Sheridan  and  Davis  were  ordered  at 
all  hazards  to  resist  the  advance  of  Longstreet,  as  our  commissary  trains 
were  but  three  miles  or  so  in  the  rear,  and  time  was  essential  to  secure 
their  safe  retreat  to  Chattanooga.  And  this  was  done.  According  to 
Rosecrans'  plans,  the  holding  of  Chattanooga  was  the  supreme  need. 
Our  fighting  had  shaken,  delayed,  and  finally  checked  the  rebel  move- 
ments and  army.  Garfield  was  sent  to  Sheridan  and  Davis  to  tell  them 
what  was  wished,  and  thence  to  Thomas,  the  "rock  of  Chickamauga 
itself."  This  was  the  situation  in  the  afternoon  of  the  2oth :  Thomas 
held  the  field ;  Sheridan  -and  Davis  checked  the  rebel's  flanking  move- 
ment, Mitchell  with  our  cavalry  doing  an  important  part  of  this  work. 
Rosecrans  returned  to  Chattanooga  to  prepare  for  the  new  dispositions 
of  his  troops  so  necessary.  It  was  the  hard  fighting  of  Sheridan  and 
Davis  alone,  just  before  and  at  the  Dry  Valley  road  movement,  that 
prevented  the  Longstreet  attack  on  our  right  wing  (Twentieth  Corps) 
from  becoming  an  utter  rout.  The  Comte  de  Paris  in  his  fourth  vol- 
ume criticises  Sheridan's  action  here  somewhat  adversely,  and  Rose- 
crans' very  sharply. 

Thomas,  meanwhile,  ignorant  of  the  disaster  which  had  befallen 
the  right  wing,  was  holding  his  own  position  most  gallantly.  He  had 
sent  Captain  Kellogg  at  noon  to  hasten  the  march  of  Sheridan,  whose 

*  A  foot-note  to  the  Century  article,  already  referred  to,  says  that  at  Chickamauga  Bragg  had 
184  regiments  and  29  battalions  of  infantry,  34  regiments  of  cavalry,  and  47  batteries  of  artillery. 
Our  roster  showed  133  infantry  regiments,  18  of  cavalry,  and  35  1-2  batteries  of  artillery.  The  Con. 
federates  were  on  the  aoth,  says  Rosecrans,  holding  a  front  line  of  6,880  yards,  and  a  second  one  of 
3,310  yards  long.  Our  own  lines  were  3,400  yards  on  the  front  and  1,750  on  the  second  line.  That  is 
to  say,  the  front  Confederate  lines  were  nearly  four  miles  in  length,  and  our  front  was  but  a  little 
over  two  miles  in  length.  This  is  an  important  factor  in  estimating  the  character  and  results  of  the 
battle  of  Chickamauga,  which  had  to  be  fought,  for  otherwise  the  Union  army  would  have  been 
almost  hopelessly  environed  within  the  lines  of  Chattanooga. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 


support  had  been 
promised,  but  he  re- 
turned with  tidings 
that  a  large  Confed- 
erate force  was  ap- 
proaching. Thomas 
sent  General  Har- 
ker,  whose  brigade 
was  on  a  ridge,  in 
the  direction  of  this 
reported  advance,  to 
resist  them.  This 
was  gallantly  done. 
In  the  meantime 
General  T.  J.  Wood 
came  up,  and  was 
directed  to  put  his 
troops  on  the  left  of 
Brannan,  then  in  the 
rear  of  Thomas'  line 
of  battle,  on  a  slope 
of  the  Missionary 
Ridge,  a  little  west 
of  the  Rossville 
road,  where,  b  y 
Thomas'  order,  had 
been  massed  all  the  GEN.  JOSEPH  B.  WHEELER, 

artillery       that       COUld  A    DISTINGUISHED    CONFEDERATE    CAVALRYMAN,    AND     NOW    A    MEMBER    OF    THE 

,  ~  ,  .^,  NATIONAL    HOUSE    OF    REPRESENTATIVES    FROM    ALABAMA. 

be    found,    with    as 

much  infantry  to  its  support  as  Was  possible.  At  this  position  Thomas 
now  took  riis  command.  Wood  had  barely  time  to  dispose  of  his 
troops  on  the  left  of  Brannan,  when  they  were  furiously  attacked  ;  the 
Confederates  keeping  up  the  attack  by  throwing  in  fresh  troops  as  fast 
as  the  others  were  repulsed.  Meanwhile,  General  Granger  had  moved 
to  Thomas'  support  without  orders,  and  appeared  on  his  left  flank  at 
the  head  of  Steadman's  division.  He  was  directed  to  push  on  and  take 
position  on  Brannan's  right.  Steadman  gallantly  fought  his  way  to 
the  crest  of  the  hill,  and  then  turning  his  artillery  on  the  rebel  line, 
drove  them  down  the  slope  with  great  slaughter.  They  soon  returned 
to  the  attack,  however,  in  overwhelming  force,  pressing  Thomas  in 


120  THE  LIFE  OF 

front  and  on  both  flanks.  Granger  formed  the  cavalry  brigades  of 
Mitchell  and  Whittaker  and  charged  upon  the  flank  of  the  Confederates 
as  they  were  moving  in  line  along  a  ridge.  General  Hindman  was 
in  command  at  the  gorge  and  met  this  attack.  Our  infantry  was  led 
by  Steadman,  who  seized  a  regimental  flag  and  headed  the  charge. 
Within  twenty  minutes  the  Confederates  were  not  only  repulsed,  but 
had  disappeared.  Our  troops  held  the  ridge,  but  at  a  fearful  sacrifice 
of  life.  This  daring  action  brought  on  a  lull  for  half  an  hour,  which 
was  but  a  deep  calm  before  the  roaring  tempest.  The  Confederates 
were  swarming  around  and  behind  the  ridge,  on  which  stood  Thomas 
with  the  remnants  of  seven  divisions  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland. 

Longstreet  in  person  commanded  his  veterans,  Hood  having  lost  a 
leg  in  the  morning.  There  seemed  no  hope  for  our  shattered  army. 
Thomas,  however,  stood  like  a  rock,  and  assault  after  assault  was 
repulsed  till  sundown,  when  by  order  of  General  Rosecrans,  he  com- 
menced the  withdrawal  of  his  troops  to  Rossville.  His  ammunition 
was  nearly  exhausted.  His  men  had  not  more  than  three  rounds 
apiece  when  Steadman  arrived.  Garfield  bore  an  order  from  Rose- 
crans for  Thomas  to  take  command  of  all  the  forces,  and  withMcCook 
and  Crittenden  to  secure  a  strong  position  at  Rossville  and  assume  a 
threatening  attitude.  On  the  way  Turchins'  brigade  charged  upon  a 
heavy  body  of  Confederates  who  were  seeking  to  obstruct  the  move- 
ment. They  were  driven  with  a  great  loss,  and  there  was  no  pursuit. 
Thomas  quietly  took  possession  of  the  Rossville  and  the  Dry  Valley 
gaps  of  Missionary  Ridge.  That  night  the  whole  army  withdrew  in 
perfect  order  to  the  position  assigned  it  by  Rosecrans,  in  front  of 
Chattanooga.  The  following  day  Bragg  took  possession  of  Lookout 
Mountain,  and  so  ended  the  battle  of  Chickamauga.  Rosecrans  says  in 
the  article  already  quoted,  that  Thomas  used  the  discretion  indicated 
by  Garfield,  "and  retired  to  Rossville,  where  our  troops  halted,  and, 
in  spite  of  their  condition,  wearied  with  three  days  and  a  night  of 
marching  and  fighting,  were  by  n  o'clock  in  fair  defensive  posi- 
tion. .  .  .  On  the  next  morning,  Monday,  the  2ist,  our  lines 
at  Rossville  were  rectified,  and  advantageous  positions  were  taken  to 
receive  the  enemy  if  he  desired  to  attack  us." 

This  he  did  not  feel  like  doing  after  a  sharp  reconnaissance.  Chat- 
tanooga, at  least,  was  held,  and  a  very  superior  force  was  successfully 
checked,  if  not  defeated.  The  campaign  was  certainly  a  memorable 
one.  It  occupied  ninety-two  days.  A  great  army  had  moved  success- 
fully for  139  miles  through  an  hostile  country.  Three  mountain 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  121 

ranges  and  a  broad  river  had  been  passed.  Two  strongly  intrenched 
camps  were  made  useless.  Many  small  battles  were  fought.  A  great 
amount  of  severe  military  service  was  performed.  The  objective  point 
of  the  campaign  remained  in  our  hands,  after  a  great  battle  wherein  we 
had  been  largely  outnumbered.  This  was  the  school  and  the  work 
wherein  Sheridan  was  trained. 

Severe  criticism  has  been  accorded  General  Rosecrans  for  his  part 
in  this  serious  battle.  It  certainly  cost  him  the  confidence  of  the  coun- 
try, and  has  embittered,  justly  or  otherwise,  his  whole  life  since  that 
date.  In  his  -latest  volume  (the  fourth),  the  Comte  de  Paris  sharply 
arraigns  Sheridan,  even,  for  some  laxness  in  the  afternoon  fighting,  and 
in  executing  the  order  to  hold  the  Dry  Valley  road.  As  the  French 
author,  however,  stands  alone  in  this,  the  friends  of  General  Sheridan 
can  well  afford  to  leave  his  memory  undefended  in  all  respects.  The 
Comte  de  Paris'  is  that  of  the  closet,  and  is  naturally  based  more  upon 
suppositions  as  to  what  a  commander  should  do  in  a  given  emergency, 
than  upon  an  actual  realization  of  all  the  factors  of  the  case — the  inci- 
dents and  conditions  upon  which  alone  even  a  soldier  like  Sheridan 
could  act  and  achieve. 

The  hero  of  Chickamauga.  as  every  one  concedes,  was  the  noble 
old  Virginian  soldier,  George  H.  Thomas.  If  living  to-day  he  would 
be  Sheridan's  successor.  The  "  Rock  of  Chickamauga  "  was  one  of 
the  best  beloved  of  American  soldiers.  The  esteem,  nay  love,  in  which 
his  memory  is  held  by  all  soldiers  and  officers  who  fought  with  and 
under  him,  forms  a  tribute  to  his  name  and  fame  of  the  most  enduring 
renown.  Sheridan,  like  all  who  knew  the  calm,  upright,  powerful 
integrity  of  his  character  and  will,  held  the  memory  of  Major-General 
George  H.  Thomas  in  the  highest  regard. 

The  battle  of  Chickamauga  was  a  decided  turning  point  in  the  war, 
drawing  as  it  did  the  nation's  attention  to  the  grave  importance  of  the 
Chattanooga  situation,  and  thereby  compelling  its  speedy  succor.  Such 
action  meant  at  any  cost ;  such  success  meant,  as  events  soon  established, 
the  rending  asunder  of  the  slave-holders'  confederacy. 


CHAPTER  X. 


AT  CHATTANOOGA. 


A  DESPERATE  SITUATION  —  HELPING  A  STARVING  ARMY —  TAKING  PART  IN  THE 
BATTLE  OF  MISSIONARY  RIDGE  —  LEADING  A  DESPERATE  CHARGE  UP  THE 
HEIGHTS  —  A  SINGULAR  STORY  OF  WAR  —  WITH  GRANT  ON  ORCHARD  KNOB 
—  LOOKING  AT  HOOKER'S  FIGHT  —  A  GREAT  DAY'S  WORK — COMMENDED  FOR 
GALLANTRY  AND  ABILITY. 

AFTER  the  battle  of  Chickamauga  the  situation  within  the  "  Gate 
City"  of  Georgia  soon  became  a  fearful  one.  Bragg's  army  held  the 
two  great  mountain  lines :  Lookout  to  the  east,  enfilading,  as  it  were, 
our  positions  ;  Missionary  Ridge,  commanding  our  entire  west  front  and 
the  great  bend  of  the  Tennessee  River  with  its  marvelous  defensible 
positions.  The  Chattanooga  Valley,  between  Missionary  Ridge  and 
Lookout  Mountain,  formed  the  great  battle  amphitheatre  in  which  the 
mighty  combat  for  the  control  of  the  region  was  to  be  fought.  It  is  as 
notable  a  field  for  tremendous  military  tactics  and  struggles  as  that  other 
famous  one  of  the  Civil  War,  the  historic  valley  of  Gettysburg.  The 
latter  is  eminently  simple,  though  large  in  topography.  It  is  also  lovely 
and  sylvan  in  its  picturesque  aspects.  At  Chattanooga  the  shock  of 
armies  was  heightened  and  enhanced  in  imaginative  effect  by  the  mas- 
sive details  of  the  topography  and  the  bold,  rugged,  and  frowning 
aspects  of  the  grand  yet  rude  details  of  a  superb  and  mighty  landscape, 
which  holds  in  its  vast  ensemble  the  culminating  conjunction  of  the  great 
Appalachian  Range  that  combines  the  Cumberland  and  Blue  Ranges 
with  the  mighty,  haze-draped  plateau  of  Northern  Georgia.  Through  this 
great  mountain  formation  the  Tennessee  has  forced  its  way  by  deep 
gorges,  rapids,  great  bends,  serpentine  channels,  and  over  the  Mussle 
Shoals,  adding  marvelously  to  the  romantic  beauty  and  wonderful  pic- 
turesqueness  of  the  whole  region.  It  was  a  field  fit  for  the  combat  of 
Titans  —  for  the  settlement  of  a  continental  destiny.  A  story  is  told  of 
a  Confederate  soldier  which  illustrates  this.  He  declared  after  the 


124  THE  LIFE  OF 

battle  that  Grant's  orders  were  not  those  of  an  ordinary  commander. 
Against  Bragg,  he  affirmed  that  the  Yankees  came  — 

"  By  States,  attention  ! " 

"  By  Nation,  right  wheel ! " 

u  By  Continent,  forward  march  !  " 

The  Confederates,  who  were  at  this  time  well  handled  by  Bragg, 
succeeded  in  cutting  off  our  railroad  supply  line  at  Bridgeport,  on  the 
Tennessee,  twenty-six  miles  to  the  west  of  Chattanooga.  As  a  conse- 
quence the  situation  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland  rapidly  assumed, 
after  Chickamauga,  the  aspect  of  a  closely  beleaguered  post,  camp,  and 
force.  The  animals  died  from  want  of  forage  ;  the  troops  were  placed 
on  half  rations,  and  those  of  the  poorest  quality.  The  only  road  open 
to  the  army  was  a  round-about  line  on  the  river,  north  of,  and  over  the 
Waldron  Range,  through  the  Sequatchie  Valley,  some  sixty  miles  in 
length.  It  was  liable  to  be  overwhelmed  by  a  raid  of  the  successful 
enemy  at  any  time.  Eastward,  Burnside  at  Knoxville  was  in  great 
danger.  The  worst  feature  of  all  was  Rosecrans'  own  discouragement. 

In  this  plight,  the  Washington  authorities  turned  to  Grant  as  a  suit- 
able commander  to  reorganize  victory.  Previously,  however,  Sherman 
had  been  ordered  by  Halleck  from  Vicksburg  to  the  relief  of  Chatta- 
nooga. He  was  to  start  from  Memphis,  following  the  railroad  to  Cor- 
inth, with  all  the  troops  that  could  be  obtained  from  Hurlbut.  Those 
from  Vicksburg  were  to  be  under  McPherson.  These  orders  were 
received  on  the  23d  of  September.  After  Vicksburg,  Grant  had  urged 
a  movement  against  Mobile.  This  was  to  be  done  in  order  to  relieve 
Rosecrans,  by  compelling  the  withdrawal  southward  of  Bragg's  troops. 
The  Ninth  Corps  was  ordered  to  Tennessee.  On  the  29th  Halleck 
ordered  all  forces  possible  to  Rosecrans'  relief.  At  that  time,  Grant 
says  in  his  Memoirs  :  "  The  National  troops  were  now  strongly  in- 
trenched in  Chattanooga  Valley,  with  the  Tennessee  River  behind 
them,  and  the  enemy  occupying  commanding  heights  to  the  east  and 
west,  with  a  strong  line  across  the  valley,  from  mountain  to  mountain, 
and  Chattanooga  Creek  for  a  large  part  of  the  way  in  front  of  their 
line." 

Both  Sherman  and  McPherson  were  then  moving  slowly  eastward ; 
Sherman  being  hindered  by  orders  to  repair  the  railroad  line.  Gen- 
eral Hooker's  corps  from  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  also  started  to 
Chattanooga.  On  the  3d  of  October,  Grant  was  ordered  ^  to  Cairo  to 
receive  orders  from  Washington.  Arriving  there,  he  was  directed  to 
proceed  to  Louisville.  He  then  met  Secretary  Stanton  at  Indian- 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  125 

apolis,  and  they  went  to  Louisville  together.  There  Grant  was  offered 
and  accepted  the  command  of  the  Division  of  the  Mississippi,  embracing 
all  territory  between  the  river  and  the  Alleghanies  north  of  the  region 
under  Banks  in  the  Department  of  the  Gulf.  In  this  division  were 
the  armies  of  the  Ohio,  holding  Kentucky,  Indiana,  Illinois,  and  Ohio, 
that  of  the  Tennessee,  and  of  the  Cumberland,  with  Burnside's  army  in 
East  Tennessee,  Hancock's  fighters  from  the  Potomac,  and  Pope's 
troops  in  the  Northwest  Department.  It  included  as  corps  command- 
ers such  men,  among  others,  as  Thomas,  Sherman,  Hooker,  Burnside, 
Granger,  Blair,  and  Stanley  ;  such  department  chiefs  as  Hurlbut,  Pope, 
Wright,  Boyle,  and  others ;  and  a  host  also  of  great  division  com- 
manders, among  whom  were  growing  soldiers  and  fighters,  like  our 
hero,  Sheridan,  T.  J.  Wood,  Howard,  Geary,  Palmer,  Wilcox,  W.  F. 
Smith,  Steadman,  Baird,  Jeff.  C.  Davis,  Hazen,  Willich,  Mitchell, 
Brannan,  Minty,  Wilder,  Logan,  McPherson,  Innis,  Johnson,  Negley, 
and  many  others.  Grant  and  Stanton  were  in  Louisville  on  October 
1 7th.  That  night,  Assistant  Secretary  of  War  Charles  A.  Dana,  who 
was  at  Chattanooga,  telegraphed  of  Rosecrans'  desire  to  evacuate  or 
surrender.  Either  involved  the  worst  disasters.  Thomas  by  tele- 
graph was  at  once  placed  in  chief  command  at  Chattanooga.  He  was 
directed  by  Grant  to  hold  the  place  at  all  hazards.  Hooker  was  then 
in  supporting  distance,  O.  O.  Howard  being  at  Jasper,  and  Geary 
nearby.  Thomas  declared  he  would  "  stick."  Grant  reached  Chat- 
tanooga, October  22d.  He  was  on  crutches  at  the  time,  and  was  car- 
ried by  men  part  of  the  way  over  the  Waldron  Ridge.  Rosecrans  was 
met  at  Bridgeport,  and  gave  Grant  some  "  good  suggestions,"  which 
the  latter  naively  wonders  he  "  had  not  himself  adopted." 

Sheridan  and  others  of  "  Rosey's  "  division  commanders  awaited 
without  enthusiasm  Grant's  arrival.  Finding  a  second  pontoon  bridge 
in  process  of  construction,  the  boats  being  hidden  from  Bragg's  outlooks 
up  the  North  Chickamauga,  the  new  commander  determined  to  load 
them  with  picked  men,  move  Hooker  from  Bridgeport  up  the  Tennessee 
on  the  south  side,  developing  also  a  force  on  the  north  side  under  Gen- 
eral Palmer,  and  thus  run  the  river  by  night,  seizing  the  enemy's  pickets, 
make  a  new  crossing,  and  open  the  railroad  from  Bridgeport  to  Kelley's 
Ford,  eight  miles  from  Chattanooga  with  a  good  wagon  road  thereto. 
It  was  successfully  done,  and  once  more  the  "  cracker  line,"  as  the  boys 
called  it,  was  established.  The  inspiring  effect  was  immediate.  Men 
were  fed  and  reclothed.  Medicines,  vegetables,  etc.,  were  received  and 
new  means  of  field  transportation  obtained.  Much  credit  for  all  this 


126  THE  LIFE  OF 

is  due  to  General  W.  F.  Smith,  who  as  engineer-in-chief,  began,  be- 
fore Grant's  arrival,  measures  of  the  kind  that  commander  accepted 
and  enlarged.  It  was  all  done  by  the  28th,  and  the  river  was  again 
opened  to  Lookout.  Our  extreme  right  was  thus  connected  in  Lookout 
Valley  with  Chattanooga  and  the  army  there.  During  Hooker's  move- 
ments in  support,  Howard  had  a  sharp  and  successful  fight  near  Brown's 
Ferry.  On  the  29th  of  October,  Geary's  division  was  savagely  attacked 
at  Wauhatchie,  north  of  the  Tennessee,  by  Longstreet  in  force.  Hooker 
marched  rapidly  to  Geary's  support,  who  held  his  own  for  three  hours 
against  a  larger  force.  The  fighting  continued  till  long  after  dark.  It 
ended  rather  ludicrously,  though,  in  a  Union  victory.  Hooker's  team- 
sters got  panic  stricken  and  the  mules  stampeded,  rushing  towards  the 
rebel  lines,  which,  supposing  the  rush  to  be  a  cavalry  charge,  retired  in 
haste  and  without  order.  A  camp  parody  embalms  the  "  Battle  of  the 
Mules,"  and  it  is  given  here  : 

"  Forward,  the  mule  brigade  ; 
Was  there  a  mule  dismayed  ? 
Not  when  the  long  ears  felt 

All  their  ropes  sundered. 
Theirs  not  to  make  reply  — 
Theirs  not  to  reason  why  — 
Theirs  but  to  make  them  fly  — 
On  to  the  Georgia  troops 

Broke  the  two  hundred. 

"  Mules  to  the  right  of  them  — 
Mules  to  the  left  of  them  — 
Mules  all  behind  them  — 

Pawed,  neighed,  and  thundered ; 
Breaking  their  own  confines  — 
Breaking  through  Longstreet's  lines, 
Testing  chivalric  spines ; 
Into  the  Georgia  troops 

Stormed  the  two  hundred." 

The  Union  loss  in  these  movements  was  489  killed  and  wounded. 
Of  the  Confederates,  150  were  left  dead  on  the  field,  and  100  remained 
prisoners.  Their  wounded  were  removed. 

Already  the  siege  had  been  lifted  in  large  degree.  There  was 
great  peril,  however.  Sherman  was  hastening  eastward  with  the 
Army  of  the  Tennessee.  Burnside's  position  grew  worse.  He  was 
over  one  hundred  miles  from  a  railroad  or  his  base  of  supplies,  with 
insufficient  forces  and  stores,  but  holding  Knoxville  and  the  Union 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  127 

settlements  with  a  cheery  courage.  Grant  was  earnestly  pressed  to 
relieve  him,  and  the  only  way  to  do  so  was  to  fight  a  great  battle  at 
Chattanooga.  Bragg  made  a  vigorous  effort  to  recover  the  line  broken 
by  Grant's  first  movements.  Longstreet  and  Wheeler,  with  20,000  men, 
had  been  sent  against  Burnside,  halting,  however,  at  Loudon,  East 
Tennessee,  where  their  railroad  terminated.  This  enabled  them  to 
threaten  Knoxville  or  reinforce  Bragg. 

On  our  side,  Sherman  and  McPherson  were  marching  steadily  and 
rapidly  to  Stephenson.  Sherman  under  Grant's  orders  had  abandoned 
the  railroad  work  that  Halleck  imposed.  But  in  order  to  get  more  rail- 
road transportation,  Granville  M.  Dodge  was  left  at  Athens,  Tennessee, 
with  8,000  men,  to  repair  and  hold  the  Nashville  and  Decatur  line,  with 
its  102  miles  of  broken  road  and  its  182  bridges.  This  in  a  region 
swarming  with  guerrillas.  Seeing  the  impossibility  of  otherwise  reliev- 
ing Burnside,  Grant  on  the  yth  of  November  ordered  Thomas  to  make 
an  attack  in  force.  As  he  was  without  animals  to  move  artillery,  this 
Thomas  declined  to  do..  On  the  14th,  however,  Sherman's  advance 
was  at  Bridgeport.  Burnside  was  telegraphed  to  that  effect,  and  assured 
that  the  fight  was  imminent  which  would  relieve  him.  The  weather 
was  rainy.  It  was  decided  to  fight  on  the  24th.  This  was  begun  a 
day  earlier,  however,  to  encourage  our  troops  at  Knoxville.  Long- 
street's  absence  at  Loudon  weakened  Bragg  very  seriously. 

Chattanooga's  lines  of  defense  were  very  strong,  and  extended  for  a 
mile  along  Cetico  Creek,  near  the  base  of  Missionary  Ridge.  This 
stream  empties  two  miles  below.  All  elevations  were  carefully  forti- 
fied. The  fort  closest  to  the  ridge  was  named  after  General  Wood,  and 
with  its  twenty-two  guns  could  reach  the  nearest  points  on  the  enemy's 
lines.  Cetico  Creek  is  south  of  Chattanooga.  Bragg's  main  army  was 
aligned  for  six  miles  along  the  crest  of  Missionary  Ridge  to  the  west. 
From  the  centre  of  the  slope  to  Chattanooga  River  they  held  a  strong 
line  of  works.  In  other  words,  Thomas  held  the  interior  lines,  making 
a  sickle-shaped  position,  with  Chattanooga  and  the  Tennessee  River  as 
the  handle.  The  rebel  position  might  be  counted  as  a  scythe  blade  with- 
out handle,  while  from  the  centre  lay  an  irregular  swath  of  troops. 
This  was  met  and  faced  with  a  series  of  independent  redoubts  which 
Grant's  new  lines  had  erected.  The  north  end  of  Lookout  Valley  was 
in  our  possession.  Hooker  had  moved  across  it,  and  his  lines  faced 
alike  the  northwest  slope  of  Lookout  and  were  headed  toward  the 
northeast  slope  of  the  Missionary  Ridge  Sherman  was  moving  into  the 
great  field  from  the  direction  of  Chickamauga  to  the  south  and  east. 


128  THE  LIFE  OF 

From  Chattanooga  as  a  base,  then,  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland  under 
Thomas  was  in  the  centre.  Hooker  held  the  right  and  Sherman  the 
left  of  our  position  on  the  high  and  rugged  intervale  or  plain  of  Chatta- 
nooga on  the  23d  of  November,  1863.  The  centre  was  strengthened 
greatly  by  its  strong,  defensive  works.  Back  of  us  was  the  Tennessee  ; 
to  the  front  of  us  the  frowning  heights  of  Missionary  Ridge ;  to  the 
east  and  north  the  precipitous  cliffs  of  Lookout. 

General  Granger,  under  Grant's  new  disposition,  was  in  command 
of  the  corps  composed  of  Sheridan's  and  Wood's  divisions.  On  the 
23d,  this  corps  was  in  the  early  morning  placed  to  the  foot  of  Fort 
Wood,  "  Sheridan  on  the  right  and  Wood  on  the  left,  extending  to  or 
near  Cetico  Creek."  *  Palmer,  in  command  of  Thomas'  old  corps,  the 
Fourteenth,  was  in  position  to  the  south  and  southwest,  supporting 
Sheridan  with  Baird's  division,  the  other,  Johnson's,  being  kept  in  the 
trenches  ready  for  any  movement.  A  signal  gun  from  the  fort  gave 
the  order  to  advance.  This  was  done  in  fine  style,  driving  in  all  pick- 
ets, and  securing  a  new  line  one  mile  in  advance  to  the  west.  It  was 
not  done  without  loss.  That  night  our  earthworks  were  turned  to  the 
enemy,  men  working  all  night  to  secure  that  end.  Our  loss  was  about 
eleven  hundred  killed  and  wounded.  The  artillery  fire  was  maintained 
all  night,  on  both  sides,  and  the  advantage  strongly  remained  on  our 
side.  The  night  before,  a  rebel  deserter  informed  Sheridan  that  Bragg's 
baggage  was  being  reduced,  and  that  he  was  preparing  to  fall  back. 
Our  movements  of  the  next  day  were  executed  wholly  by  the  Army  of 
the  Cumberland  —  a  change  in  Grant's  original  plans.  The  capture  of 
Orchard  Knob,  from  which,  later,  Grant  and  others  directed  the  opera- 
tions, was  part  of  the  successful  work  done  on  the  23d.  Brigadier- 
General  J.  S.  Fullerton,  then  chief  of  staff  to  General  Granger,  says  :  f 
"At  noon  [23d]  General  Grant,  Assistant  Secretary  of  War  Dana, 
General  Thomas,  Generals  Hooker,  Granger,  Howard,  and  other  dis- 
tinguished officers,  stood  on  the  parapet  of  Fort  Wood,  facing  Orchard 
Knob,  waiting  to  see  this  initial  movement  —  the  overture  to  the  battle 
of  Chattanooga.  At  half-past  twelve  Wood's  division,  supported  by 
Sheridan,  marched  out  on  the  plain  in  front  of  the  fort.  .  .  .  Flags 
were  flying  ;  the  quick,  earnest  step  of  thousands  beat  equal  time.  .  . 
.  All  looked  like  preparations  for  a  pageant,  rather  than  for  the 
bloody  work  of  death.  Groups  of  officers  on  Missionary  Ridge  looked 
down  through  their  glasses  .  .  .  unconcernedly  viewing  what  they 

*  Grant's  Memoirs. 
•    +  "  Army  of  the  Cumberland."     Century,  May,  1887. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  129 

supposed  to  be  preparations  for  a  grand  review."  The  advance  was 
sounded.  "At  once  Wood's  division,  moving  with  the  steadiness  of  a 
machine,  started  forward.  .  .  .  General  Howard,  who  had  just 
come  from  the  East,  remarked  to  an  officer  :  k  Why,  this  is  magnificent ! 
.  They  could  not  go  on  dress-parade  better.'  "  The  finale  is 
briefly  told,  and  it  embraces  the  capture  of  Orchard  Knob  :  "  A  sharp, 
short  struggle,  and  the  hill  was  ours."  This  capture  caused  Bragg  to 
transfer  a  division  from  Lookout  to  Missionary  Ridge.  That  weakened 
Lookout,  and  made  Grant  consider  the  feasibility  of  an  attack  thereon. 
Sherman's  army  was  still  struggling  into  position.  All  but  one 
division,  that  of  Osterhaus,  was  ready  to  move.  He  was  ordered  to 
report  to  Hooker  on  the  right,  if  he  could  not  cross  at  Brown's  Ferry 
on  the  early  morning  of  the  24th.  Thomas  strengthened  his  position, 
but  did  not  move  forward,  of  course.  Sherman's  command  moved  over 
the  Tennessee  at  the  mouth  of  the  South  Chickamauga,  by  pontoon 
bridge  and  ferry.  At  noon  all  was  ready,  and  Sherman  was  in  position 
for  his  great  assault  on  the  south  end  of  the  ridge.  By  sundown  he 
was  in  possession  of  a  good  line  from  the  Chickamauga  River  west- 
ward, holding  the  foothills  strongly.  Hooker  engaged  with  three  divis- 
ions on  the  west.  These  represented  the  three  Union  armies,  under 
Osterhaus  of  the  Tennessee,  Cruft  of  the  Cumberland,  and  Geary  of 
the  Potomac.  Howard  was  with  Sherman.  Three  rebel  brigades 
under  General  Carter  L.  Stevenson,  held  the  east  of  Lookout  Creek. 
Thus  the  two  armies  confronted  each  other,  llooker  moved  Geary 
and  one  of  Cruft's  brigades  to  the  front  early  on  the  24th.  Then  fol- 
lowed the  balance  of  his  command.  Thus  was  begun  the  "battle 
above  the  clouds,"  of  which  so  much  has  been  written  and  sung,  end- 
ing in  the  capture  of  Lookout.  Grant  says  :*  u  Hooker's  advance  now 
made  our  line  a  continuous  one.*  It  was  in  full  view  [from  the  top  of 
Orchard  Knob,  where  he  and  Thomas  were  observing],  extending  from 
the  Tennessee  River  where  Sherman  had  crossed,  up  Chickamauga 
River  to  the  base  of  Missionary  Ridge,  over  the  top  of  the  north  end  of 
the  ridge  to  Chattanooga  Valley,  then  along  parallel  to  the  ridge  a  mile 
or  more,  across  the  valley  to  the  mouth  of  Chattanooga  Creek,  thence 
up  the  slope  of  Lookout  Mountain  to  the  foot  of  the  upper  palisade. 
At  4  o'clock  Hooker  reported  his  position  [there]  as  impreg- 
nable." General  Fullerton  says  :f  "As  the  sun  went  down  [24th]  the 
clouds  rolled  away,  and  the  night  came  on  clear  and  cold.  A  grand 

*  Century  article,  Grant's  Memoirs,  November,  1885. 
^Century,  May,  1887,  "The  Army  of  the  Cumberland." 
9 


i?o  THE  LIFE  OF 

sight  was  Old  Lookout  that  night.  Not  two  miles  apart  were  the  par- 
allel fires  of  the  two  armies,  extending  from  the  summit  of  the  mount- 
ain to  its  base,  looking  like  great  strjeams  of  burning  lava  ;  while  in 
between,  the  flashes  from  the  muskets  of  the  skirmishers  glowed  like 
giant  fireflies."  In  the  morning  it  was  found  that  the  enemy  had  left 
Lookout. 

The  25th  opened  "big  with  expectancy."  In  retiring  from  Look- 
out the  previous  night,  the  enemy  had  burned  all  bridges  and  other- 
wise damaged  the  roads  on  which  Hooker  was  to  advance.  This 
delayed  him  four  hours.  The  main  position  became  so  critical  that 
Grant  gave  the  order  for  the  advance  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland, 
which  was  to  storm  the  ridge  in  the  centre.  Sheridan's  and  Wood's 
divisions  were  under  arms.  They  had  impatiently  waited  the  order 
to  "  move  "  since  early  morning.  Sheridan's  order  was  :  "As  soon  as 
the  signal  is  given  the  whole  line  will  advance  and  you  will  take  what 
is  before  you." 

General  H.  V.  Boynton,  the  well-known  journalist  and  military 
critic,  who  commanded  a  regiment,  and  was  severely  wounded  in  the 
assault,  says  of  this  great  movement,  that  "  It  was  the  third  and  last 
day  of  the  battle.  On  the  first,  Thomas  had  sent  Hooker  to  the  suc- 
cessful assault  on  Lookout.  On  the  second,  Sheridan  had  taken  a 
brilliant  part  in  a  movement,  which,  in  its  precision,  was  mistaken  by 
the  enemy  for  a  review,  but  which  ended  with  the  rush  which  cap- 
tured Orchard  Knob.  On  the  last,  four  divisions  of  the  Army  of  the 
Cumberland  lay  from  morning  till  near  sundown  facing  the  ridge,  and 
impatiently  watching  the  terrible  pendulum -swings  of  the  splendid  but 
unsuccessful  assaults  of  Sherman's  troops  on  its  northern  extremity, 
which  were  plainly  seen  from  Orchard  Knob,  where  Grant,  Thomas, 
and£  Granger  stood  watching  the  contest  hour  after  hour,  with  an 
intensity  of  interest  and  a  growing  impatience  which  were  inseparable 
from  the  situation.  The  sun  was  nearing  the  western  ranges.  Hooker's 
guns  had  not  been  heard  on  the  right,  and  Sherman  was  unable,  with  all 
his  forces,  to  make  further  impression  on  the  left.  Baird  was  hurried 
to  his  aid.  He  then  had  seven  divisions,  or  over  half  the  Union  army, 
but  there  being  no  room  for  Baird  to  operate,  he  returned  to  the  centre, 
and  had  just  formed  again  on  the  left  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland, 
when  the  grand  spectacular  movement  began  which  closed  the  fight." 

At  twenty  minutes  to  four  the  signal  gun  was  fired.  Suddenly 
20,000  men  rushed  forward,  moving  in  a  line  of  battle  by  brigades, 
with  a  double  line  of  skirmishers  in  front,  and  closely  followed  by  the 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN.  151 

reserves  en  masse.  The  guns  of  Fort  Wood  and  other  Union  works 
roared  above  the  rattle  of  our  light  artillery  and  musketry.  The  enemy's 
rifle-pits  were  all  ablaze.  The  Cumberland  Army  divisions  deployed 
right  and  left  in  front  of  Indian  Hill,  and  moved  in  face  of  a  terrible 
fire  from  the  rifle-pits  at  the  base  of  the  ridge.  When  they  reached  the 
Confederate  skirmishers,  they  fled  precipitately,  closely  pressed  by  the 
Fourth  and  Fourteenth  corps.  Coming  up  on  a  run  our  men  were 
greeted  with  a  formidable  fire,  for  all  the  Confederate  outposts  assigned 
to  duty  massed  themselves  in  their  lower  rifle-pits.  In  a  few  minutes 
all  was  confusion  among  them. 

By  a  bold  and  desperate  rush,  the  two  divisions  had  broken  through 
in  several  places,  and  opened  both  flank  and  reverse  fires.  The  enemy 
was  thrown  into  confusion  and  took  flight  up  the  ridge.  Many  prisoners 
were  captured.  The  order  of  the  commanding  general  did  not  go  far 
enough  to  satisfy  our  brave  men,  who  were  burning  to  wipe  out  the 
defeat  of  Chickamauga.  There  was  a  halt  of  a  few  minutes  to 
re-form,  then  with  a  sudden  impulse  and  without  orders,  the  soldiers 
started  up  the  ridge.  Officers  first  followed,  then  led  them. 

General  Boynton's  description  of  the  ground  gives  a  vivid  idea  of 
what  was  before  our  men.  He  says  :  "The  orders  for  the  movement 
contemplated  a  halt  in  the  first  line  of  works  for  slight  rest,  and  a  re- 
forming of  lines  for  forward  movement ;  but  impatient  under  the  galling 
fire  from  above,  elated  by  success,  anxious  and  determined  to  play  their 
full  part  in  the  day's  pageant,  the  front  line  scarcely  halted  at  the  lower 
works,  but  springing  over  and  out  of  them,  began  to  climb  the  rough 
face  of  the  ridge.  It  was  500  yards  to  the  summit.  The  general  eleva- 
tion was  500  feet,  and  from  a  point  a  short  distance  within  the  works 
at  the  base  the  slope  became  precipitous.  It  was  broken  by  ravine, 
tangled  with  fallen  timber,  strewn  with  masses  of  rock,  and  covered 
at  points  with  loose  stones  from  the  ledges  on  the  crest.  Spurs  pro- 
jected from  the  face  of  the  ridge  at  intervals,  serving  for  natural  bas- 
tions, from  which  field  artillery  and  riflemen  swept  the  intervening 
curtains  of  the  slope  with  an  enfilading  fire." 

When  the  Fourth  Corps  was  seen  from  Orchard  Knob  "  swarming 
like  bees,"  as  Grant  said,  up  the  rugged  mountain  slope,  the  general 
turned  quickly  to  Thomas,  and  said  : 

"  Who  ordered  those  men  up  the  ridge?  " 
Thomas  replied,  coolly  :   "  I  don't  know  ;  I  did  not." 
Then  came  the  inquiry  :  "  Did  you  order  them  up,  Granger?  " 
"  No,"  said  Granger.     "  They  started  up  without  orders.     When 
those  fellows  get  started,  all  h — 1  can't  stop  them." 


152  THE  LIFE  OF 

General  Grant  was  startled,  and  at  first  dissatisfied.  By  and  by, 
he  turned  to  Granger's  chief  of  staff  and  said  :  "  Ride  at  once  to  Wood, 
and  then  to  Sheridan,  and  ask  them  if  they  ordered  their  men  up  the 
ridge.  Tell  them,  if  they  can  take  it,  to  push  ahead." 

General  Fullerton  writes  :  "As  I  was  mounting,  Granger  added  : 
'  It's  pretty  hot  over  there,  and  you  may  not  get  through.  I'll  send 
Captain  Avery  to  Sheridan,  and  other  officers  after  both  of  you.'  "  * 

When  asked,  Wood  said:  "  I  didn't  order  them  up;  they  started 
up  on  their  own  account,  and  they  are  going  up,  too  !  Tell  Granger  if 
we  are  supported,  we  will  take  and  hold  the  ridge." 

"  I  didn't  order  them  up,"  said  Sheridan.  "  But  we  are  going  to 
take  that  ridge  !  "  He  then  asked  Avery  for  his  flask,  and  waved  it 
at  a  group  of  rebel  officers  standing  just  in  front  of  Bragg's  head- 
quarters, with  the  salutation:  "  How  are  you,  Mr.  Bragg?  Here's 
at  you  !  "  At  once  two  guns  —  the  "Lady  Breckenridge  "  and  the 
"  Lady  Buckner," — in  front  of  Bragg's  headquarters,  were  fired  at 
Sheridan  and  the  group  of  officers  about  him.  One  shell  struck  so 
near  that  the  dirt  flew  over  Sheridan  and  Avery.  ' 4  Ah  !  "  said  the 

little  general,  "  that  was  d d  ungenerous.  I'll  take  those  guns 

for  that." 

Before  Sheridan  received  the  message  taken  by  Avery,  he  had  sent  a 
staff"  officer  to  Granger,  inquiring  whether  "  the  order  given  to  take 
the  rifle-pits  meant  the  rifle-pits  at  the  base  or  those  on  the  top  of  the 
ridge?"  Granger  told  this  officer  that  "the  order  was  to  take  those 
at  the  base."  Conceiving  this  to  be  an  order  to  fall  back,  this  officer, 
on  his  way  to  Sheridan,  gave  it  to  General  Wagner,  commanding  the 
second  brigade  of  Sheridan's  division,  which  was  then  nearly  half  way 
up  the  ridge.  Wagner  promptly  ordered  his  men  back  again  to  the 
mountain  base.  They  only  remained  a  few  minutes  there.  Sheridan 
seeing  the  mistake,  ordered  it  forward.  It  again  advanced  under  the 
raking  fire  at  the  lower  part  of  the  ridge.  The  men  were  climbing 
and  fighting  up  the  steep  hill-side.  The  broken  ground  made  it  impos- 
sible to  keep  a  regular  line  of  battle.  Sometimes  the  troops  were  in  line 
like  a  lot  of  birds,  again  in  "  V  "-shaped  groups  with  the  point  toward 
the  enemy.  At  these  points  our  regimental  flags  were  seen  flying. 
Sixty  of  the  gleaming  colors  were  advancing  up  the  hill,  in  the  face  of  its 
defenders. 

Again,  says  General  Boynton :  "  Nothing  less  than  the  palisades  of 
Lookout  could  have  stopped  that  Army  of  the  Cumberland,  though 

*  "  The  Army  of  the  Cumberland."   Century,  May,  1887. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 


THE    ROUGH    RIDERS. 

A  STREET  CAVALRY  FIGHT  IN  KERNSTOWN,  VA. 

Bragg  and  his  thousands  above  still  deemed  their  position  impregnable. 
All  heights  were  fringed  with  spectators  of  that  wonderful  assault.  The 
guns  in  the  Union  works  which  had  covered  the  first  advance  were 
necessarily  silent.  The  sun  shone  clear  on  the  slopes,  and  the  advanc- 
ing flags  and  glittering  bayonets  marked  the  rush  of  the  swift  advance. 
Under  the  fire  of  the  sharpshooters  color-bearers  fell  at  every  point  of 
the  line,  only  to  be  relieved  by  other  hands  eagerly  bearing  the  colors 
forward.  This  deadly  fire  gradually  drew  each  regiment  toward  its 
flag,  and  soon,  far  as  the  eye  could  reach  along  the  slope,  the  line  was 
transformed  into  countless  wedge-shaped  masses,  with  a  flag  at  the 
point  of  each,  cleaving  their  way  upward,  following  the  headlong  push 
of  the  guards  bearing  the  colors.  The  rebels,  who  had  been  hurled 
back  from  the  lower  line,  were  soon  driven  out  of  the  second  parallel, 
and  thence  pursued  so  closely  to  the  summit  that  retreating  Confeder- 
ates and  the  Union  flags  poured  over  the  whole  extended  line  of  works 
together." 

Bragg  hurried  large  bodies  of  men  from  his  right  to  the  centre. 
They  could  be  seen  from  Orchard  Knob  coming  in  double-quick 
time  along  the  summit  of  the  ridge.  Bragg  and  Hardee  were  at  the 
centre  striving  to  encourage  their  troops,  urging  them  to  stand  firm 


1 34  THE  LIFE  OF 

and  drive  back  the  advancing  enemy,  now  so  near  the  summit, —  so 
near,  that  the  guns  which  could  not  be  sufficiently  depressed,  became 
useless.  Artillery-men  were  seen  lighting  the  fuses  of  shells  and  bowl- 
ing these  by  scores  down  the  hill.  At  six  different  points,  and  almost 
simultaneously,  Sheridan's  and  Wood's  divisions  broke  over  the  crest. 
Sheridan's  came  first  to  the  top,  near  Bragg's  headquarters.  In  a  few 
minutes  Sheridah  himself  was  beside  the  guns  that  were  fired  at  him 
and  claiming  them  as  prizes.  Baird's  division  of  the  Fourteenth  Corps 
took  the  works  on  Wood's  side  almost  immediately  afterwards.  John- 
son then  came  up  on  Sheridan's  right.  The  enemy's  guns  were  still 
turned  upon  those  who  were  in  the  woods.  But  soon  all  were  in  flight 
down  the  eastern  slope.  Baird  got  on  the  ridge  just  in  time  to  change 
front,  and  oppose  a  large  body  moving  down  from  the  rebel  right  to 
attack  our  left.  After  a  sharp  engagement  that  lasted  till  dark,  he 
drove  them  beyond  a  high  point  on  the  north,  which  he  at  once  occu- 
pied. The  sun  had  not  yet  gone  down,  and  Missionary  Ridge  was 
ours. 

Bragg  afterward  declared  that  the  positions  so  rapidly  taken  were 
so  strong  that  a  single  cordon  of  skirmishers  ought  to  have  defended 
the  ridge  against  the  whole  Federal  Army.  Sheridan,  however,  had 
so  well  foreseen  the  success,  that  he  sent  to  ask  General  Granger  before 
starting,  "  if  it  was  necessary  to  come  to  a  halt  at  the  foot  of  the  hills  ?  " 
This  was  when  well  on  his  way  to  the  top.  For  a  brief  space  the  sus- 
pense was  terrible,  but  it  was  soon  over  when  the  troops  under  Sheri- 
dan,Wood,  Baird,  Johnson,  and  others,  so  recklessly  and  fearlessly  took 
possession  of  the  summit.  The  Confederates  could  be  seen  from  Or- 
chard Knob,  retiring  on  the  road  to  Ringgold.  Then  followed  the 
wildest  confusion,  as  the  victors  gave  vent  to  their  joy.  Cannon  roared, 
men  shouted,  flags  waved  tumultuously.  Sheridan  did  not  stop  for 
congratulations  or  praise.  With  two  brigades  he  started  eastward  down 
the  Mission  Mills  road,  finding  strongly  posted  on  a  second  hill,  the 
enemy's  rear.  They  made  a  stout  resistance,  but  by  a  sudden  flank 
movement,  he  drove  them  from  the  heights  and  captured  two  guns  and 
many  prisoners.  At  7  o'clock  General  Granger  sent  word  to  Gen- 
eral Thomas  that  by  a  bold  dash  at  Chickamauga  Crossing,  he  might 
cut  oft'  a  large  number  of  the  enemy.  It  was  midnight  before  the 
guides  could  be  found,  and  then  General  Sheridan  again  put  his  tired 
men  in  motion.  He  reached  the  creek  just  as  the  rear  guard  of  the 
enemy  was  crossing,  and  pressed  it  so  closely  that  it  burned  the  pon- 
toon bridge  before  all  the  troops  were  over.  Sheridan  captured  several 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  135 

hundred  prisoners,  a  large  number  of  wagons,  together  with  caissons, 
artillery,  ammunition,  and  many  small  arms. 

In  the  battle  of  Missionary  Ridge  Sheridan's  and  Wood's  divisions 
took  thirty-one  pieces  of  artillery,  several  thousand  small  arms,  and 
3,800  prisoners.  But  in  that  one  hour  of  assault  they  lost  2,337  °f  their 
brave  men.  The  fire  along  the  rebel  line  was  terrific  while  the  conflict 
raged,  still  the  damage  done  was  comparatively  small.  According  to 
Boynton :  "  From  the  first  it  had  been  an  advance  almost  wholly  with- 
out firing.  Each  successive  line  of  works  and  the  summit  were  carried 
with  the  bayonet.  In  an  hour  from  the  sounding  of  the  signal  guns 
Bragg  had  been  swept  from  these  dominating  positions  of  a  great  nat- 
ural fortress,  strengthened  by  every  engineering  art ;  and  the  sun,  which, 
at  its  rising,  lighted  up  that  one  flag  at  Lookout,  rested,  at  its  setting, 
on  the  countless  banners  which  a  storming  army  had  planted  along  the 
crest  of  Missionary  Ridge. 

"Throughout  this  movement  Sheridan  was  conspicuous,  followed 
by  his  staff.  As  ever,  he  was  splendidly  mounted,  and  could  be  easily 
followed  by  all  eyes  as  he  dashed  across  the  plain  and  rode  with  his 
lines  to  and  over  the  crest,  and  without  a  halt  hurled  forward  upon 
the  retreating  enemy." 

General  Grant  says:*  "To  Sheridan's  prompt  movement  [after 
the  ridge  was  captured]  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland  and  the  nation 
are  indebted  for  the  bulk  of  the  capture  of  prisoners,  artillery,  and 
small  arms  that  day.  But  for  his  prompt  pursuit,  so  much  in  this  way 
would  not  have  been  accomplished." 

Hardee's  command,  of  all  the  rebel  army,  was  still  unbroken.  The 
Comte  de  Paris  says  of  this  pursuit  of  Sheridan's,  that  Hardee  had 
"kept  Sherman  in  check  all  day  by  his  powerful  artillery  fire.  At  night 
he  was  congratulating  himself  on  success  when  he  heard  of  Breck- 
enridge's  disaster.  Out  of  ten  brigades  only  two,  those  which  formed 
Anderson's  right,  maintained  their  ranks  ;  with  these  our  right  flank 
was  menaced.  ButBaird's  arrival  with  Vandever's  and  Phelps'  brigades 
obliged  Anderson  to  fall  back  and  seek  support  near  Hardee." 

Taking  with  him  Cheatham's  division,  Hardee  moved  rapidly  to 
the  assistance  of  Anderson,  arriving  when  the  latter  was  falling  back. 
This  opportune  reinforcement  temporarily  checked  our  progress  as  we 
advanced  toward  the  north,  following  the  summit  of  Missionary  Ridge. 
Cheatham's  division  deployed  on  this  crest,  and  for  a  moment  resumed 
the  offensive.  It  then  retired  step  by  step  till  it  reached  a  point  which 

*  Century.  Article  from  Memoirs,  November,  1885. 


136  GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

it  was  able  to  hold  till  nightfall.  Bragg  gave  the  order  to  fall  back 
during  the  night.  It  was  then  that  Sheridan 'in  hot  pursuit  descended 
the  slope  of  Missionary  Ridge  with  Wagner's  and  Harker's  brigades 
placed  on  the  right  and  left  of  the  Chickamauga  road.  Night  came, 
but  Sheridan  brought  his  reserves  into  action  despite  the  darkness  and 
the  difficulties  of  the  ground.  While  Harker  engaged  the  enemy  in 
the  front,  Wagner  with  two  regiments  scaled  a  steep  acclivity,  and 
endeavored  to  turn  Bate's  right  flank.  As  the  full  moon  slowly  rose 
behind  the  dark  crest  of  the  hill,  Sheridan  and  his  companions  could  see 
depicted  against  the  sky  the  profile  of  Wagner's  soldiers  who  just  then 
had  reached  the  acclivity's  summit.  It  was  the  signal  for  a  fresh  attack, 
before  which  General  Bate  promptly  fell  back.  This  commander 
has  since  been  governor  of  Tennessee,  and  is  now  a  United  States 
Senator.  Sheridan  moved  rapidly,  to  prevent  the  destruction  of  the 
bridges  over  the  Chickamauga,  but  at  2  A.  M.  he  reached  the  stream 
onlv  to  find  them  in  ruins. 

Again,  among  the  soldiers  growing  in  public  honor  and  national 
recognition,  Sheridan  was  one  of  the  foremost,  and  also  the  youngest. 
He  was  generally  acclaimed,  and  received  special  mention  in  all  orders 
and  reports.  It  was  a  complete  victory.  The  Union  army  was,  in  round 
figures,  sixty  thousand  strong ;  the  rebel  nearly  the  same,  with  the 
added  advantage  of  its  strong  positions.  According  to  Grant,  Bragg's 
mistakes  were  seen  in  sending  away  his  ablest  corps  commander,  Long- 
street,  with  20,000  men  ;  in  weakening  himself  by  sending  a  division 
away  the  night  before,  and  finally  in  massing  so  large  a  proportion  of 
his  troops  below,  and  not  in  a  position  practically  impregnable  if  it  had 
been  well  occupied.  The  result  was  to  put  Bragg  in  full  retreat  south- 
ward. Sherman  was  sent  to  relieve  Burnside,  with  two  corps.  Long- 
street  abandoned  the  siege  without  a  fight.  The  Central  South  re- 
mained entirely  in  our  hands.  Sheridan  remained  through  the  winter 
and  early  spring  with  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland,  under  General 
Thomas,  at  Chattanooga,  and  was  reluctant  to  leave  it  for  the  East, 
having  been  offered  command  of  his  old  corps,  and  expecting  to  take 
part  with  it  in  the  already  outlined  movement  against  Atlanta. 


CHAPTER  XL 


.  A  BATTLE  IN  THE  SNOW. 

COLE'S    CAVALRY    HAVE    A    FIGHT — MOSEBY    ATTACKS     AND     IS     BEATEN     OFF  —  A 

BATTLE    TO    THE    DEATH "  FIRE  THE  T-ENTS   AND  SHOOT   BY  THE  LIGHT" 

SUFFERING  OF    THE  MEN THE    DEATH    OF    YOUNG    PAXTOX. 

SHERIDAN  is  about  to  occupy  a  larger  field.  In  it,  be  will  fill  the 
public  eye,  and  make  the  general  tongue  wag  in  wonder  at  the  deeds 
performed.  No  commander,  however,  accomplishes  great  things  with- 
out finding  a  quality  kindred  to  himself  in  the  officers  who  carry  for- 
ward his  designs,  and  in  the  men  by  whose  courage  and  devotion  the 
execution  is  alone  made  possible.  The  stuff' for  heroes  was  to  be  found 
in  the  men  of  the  Potomac  Army.  Even  Sheridan  could  not  have  made 
its  troopers  the  fighting  centaurs  they  became,  in  that  last  marvelous 
year  of  civil  strife,  unless,  indeed,  they  were  made  of  that  splendid 
human  material  whose  mould  is  never  broken,  even  if  it  be  sometimes 
weakened.  In  evidence  of  this  the  reader  will  find  the  story  of  "  Cole's 
Cavalry  "  worth  reading.  They  were  a  famous  fragment  of  the  troopcjrs 
who,  under  his  command,  like  mighty  harvesters  with  their  flails, 
pounded  the  armed  enemies  of  the  Union  into  fragments.  The  cav- 
alry under  Sheridan  was  Grant's  flail.  And  here  are  incidents  con- 
nected with  some  of  the  material  whereof  it  was  made  : 

One  rather  sultry  day  in  September,  1862,  when  the  clouds  of  war 
were  black,  a  second  lieutenant  of  cavalry  sat  upon  the  top  of  a  rail 
fence  at  Paxton's  cross-roads,  in  Loudoun  County,  Virginia.  He  was 
covered  with  the  dust  and  smoke  of  a  fight  that  his  battalion  was  hav- 
ing with  Moseby's  command  a  few  miles  up  the  road.  He  had  come 
back  to  the  point  where  this  scene  opens,  in  charge  of  five  severely 
wounded  men,  a  partial  result  of  the  skirmish.  They  were  lying  back 
of  him  under  an  apple  tree,  one  of  them,  his  own  brother,  shot  through 
the  body,  and  believed  to  be  mortally  wounded.  The  other  four  were 
not  bound  to  him  by  the  tie  of  kindred,  but  they  were  very  near  to  him, 
for  not  only  had  they  been  his  playmates  in  childhood,  but  the  compan- 
ions of  his  later  years,  and  ever  since  the  beginning  of  war  his  closest 


ij8  THE  LIFE  OF 

comrades.  They  were  suffering  terribly,  and  while  the  officer  was 
wondering  how  they  were  to  be  taken  to  the  Potomac  River,  where 
assistance  could  be  secured,  his  command  came  down  the  road  some- 
what in  disorder,  showing-  that  the  battle  had  gone  against  them.  The 
dread  of  capture  was  now  added  to  the  gloom  of  the  situation,  but  there 
was  no  time  for  reflection  or  despondency.  Moseby  was  coming,  and 
something  must  be  quickly  done. 

The  officer  sought  the  farmer  whose  name  the  cross-roads  bore,  and 
offered  $100  for  a  wagon  to  transport  his  wounded  comrades  to  the 
river,  a  few  miles  distant. 

"You  can  have  the  wagon  in  welcome.  I  am  a  Confederate  and 
have  a  boy  in  the  Confederate  army,  and  I  do  by  you,  sir,  as  I  would 
want  others  to  do  by  him  if  he  were  wounded." 

The  farmer  spurned  the  offer  of  pay  for  his  vehicle,  and  not  only 
assisted  the  officer  in  laying  straw  in  the  bottom  of  the  wagon  and 
placing  the  wounded  men  upon  it,  but  he  drove  with  him  to  the  Poto- 
mac River,  where  medical  assistance  was  summoned,  and  the  lives  of 
the  wounded  men  saved.  The  farmer's  son  was  in  Moseby's  command 
at  this  moment,  and  in  the  fight  where  these  men  were  shot. 

The  tide  of  battle  flowed  on,  and  the  disasters  of  war  multiplied. 
Hardly  a  week  during  the  two  eventful  years  which  followed,  leading 
up  to  the  climax  of  this  story,  but  that  Moseby's  command  and  the  bat- 
talion to  which  belonged  the  lieutenant  and  the  five  wounded  men 
met  in  combat.  Both  saw  hard  service.  The  four  companies  of  cav- 
alry, whose  marvelous  gallantry  under  the  most  trying  circumstances 
known  in  warfare  gives  this  theme,  were  raised  from  among  the 
Union  men  of  Western  Maryland  and  the  adjoining  counties  of  Penn- 
sylvania. They  were  enlisted  for  the  difficult  and  dangerous  duty  of 
scouting  along  the  border,  a  service  for  which  their  familiarity  with  the 
general  lay  of  the  country  specially  fitted  them. 

Army  operations  along  the  Potomac  River  were  so  active  and  im- 
portant that  this  battalion  almost  from  the  day  of  its  muster  into  the 
service  was  called  to  the  fore-front,  and  it  was  not  long  before  "Cole's 
Cavalry "  was  known  far  and  wide  for  its  almost  tireless  activity  and 
dauntless  bravery.  Major  Henry  A.  Cole,  of  Frederick,  Maryland, 
was  the  commander,  and  it  is  needless  to  say  that  he  was  a  man  of  great 
dash  and  courage.  From  ,the  very  first  fight  in  which  he  led  his  four 
companies  of  brave  mountaineers,  down  to  the  close  of  the  war,  the 
cavalry  he  commanded  bore  his  name,  and  every  one  of  those  sturdy 
veterans  took  a  special  pride  in  saying  that  he  belonged  to  Cole's 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  139 

Cavalry.  Very  many  of  these  gallant  veterans  are  still  living,  but  they 
are  scattered  to  the  four  quarters  of  the  country. 

It  would  be  almost  impossible  to  select  any  week  during  the  years 
from  '6 1  to  '65  that  was  not  fruitful  in  the  stories  of  the  daring  of  this 
handful  of  cavalry.  But  there  is  one  bold  deed  that  stands  preemi- 
nent, not  only  in  the  history  of  this  battalion,  but  in  the  whole  cavalry 
service  of  the  war. 

If  the  reader  could  stand  upon  the  great  iron  bridge  which  spans  the 
Potomac  River  at  Harper's  Ferry,  and  look  upon  Maryland  Heights, 
towering  from  the  river's  brink  2,000  feet  into  the  air,  and  crowned 
with  a  great  stone  fort,  useful  in  the  days  of  conflict,  and  then  turn  the 
eye  toward  the  great  pile  of  rocks  on  the  Virginia  side,  known  as  Lou- 
doun  Heights,  rising  abruptly  from  the  Shenandoah  River  to  the  height 
of  more  than  one  thousand  feet,  and  then  upon  Bolivar  Heights,  stand- 
ing as  a  bold  background  to  the  desolate  village  of  Harper's  Ferry, 
he  could  better  appreciate  the  situation  where  a  singular  battle  was 
fought  than  by  tracing  its  outlines  on  a  map,  or  following  a  description 
of  the  place,  however  vividly  pictured. 

In  the  winter  of  1864,  Cole's  Cavalry  was  encamped  on  the  east  face 
of  Loudoun  Heights,  a  little  more  than  two  miles  by  road  from  Harper's 
Ferry,  but  "as  the  crow  flies"  not  more  than  half  that  distance.  They 
were  the  only  troops  on  that  side  of  the  river,  and  their  position,  as  the 
sequel  will  show,  was  a  very  dangerous  one.  The  single  road  leading 
past  the  camp  toward  the  point  wThere,  at  the  beginning  of  this  chap- 
ter, this  command  was  engaged  with  Moseby,  leads  up  the  mountain- 
side, and  at  times  was  almost  impassible. 

Loudoun  County  was  the  home  of  many  of  Moseby's  most  daring 
officers  and  men.  Every  path,  ravine,  and  declivity  in  the  neighborhood 
of  this  isolated  camp  was  as  familiar  to  them  as  the  high-road. 

The  camp  was  not  established  here  without  reluctance,  for  both 
officers  and  men  recognized  the  perils  which  would  surround  it  all 
through  the  hard  winter  months.  For  a  time  the  men  were  cautious, 
and  never  undressed  at  night.  Their  arms  were  kept  always  within 
reach,  ready  for  use.  But  the  sense  of  danger,  which  all  felt  at  first, 
wore  off.  As  the  weeks  went  by  and  there  was  no  attack,  not  even  an 
alarm,  both  officers  and  men  relapsed  into  a  feeling  of  security,  which 
made  them  more  mindful  of  their  own  comfort  than  of  the  dangers  of 
the  moment. 

About  the  first  of  January  there  was  a  heavy  snow-fall,  and  the 
weather  became  intensely  cold,  inclining  the  men  to  stow  themselves 


1 40  THE  LIFE  OF 

snugly  away  at  night,  as  though  going  to  bed  at  home.     They  were  also 
not  over  careful  about  their  arms  and  ammunition. 

The  pth  of  January  was  very  cold,-'arf3  the  night  which  followed 
intensely  dark.  The  snow  carpet  which  covered  the  camp  was  the  only 
relief  to  the  great  black  veil  which  seemed  to  be  drawn  over  the  face  of  all 
nature.  It  was  upon  this  night  that  Moseby  had  determined  to  attack, 
and,  if  possible,  capture  this  battalion  of  cavalry,  which  oftener  than  any 
other  on  the  Potomac,  had  met  him  in  battle,  and  dealt  him  hard  blows. 

He  selected  about  four  hundred  of  the  best  of  his  command  and 
left  camp,  crossing  the  snow-clad  mountains  to  the  right  of  Major  Cole's 
camp.  They  came  by  by-paths  and  through  ravines,  avoiding  the 
pickets  on  the  Hillsborough  road  and  finally  capturing  them  from  the 
rear  before  they  had  a  chance  to  fire  a  shot  or  alarm  the  camp.  It  was 
between  2  and  3  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  trie  loth  of  January  that 
Moseby  captured  the  pickets  and  prepared  his  plan  of  attack  upon  the 
slumbering  camp.  His  command  was  quietly  and  quickly  posted 
along  the  lines  of  tents  where  the  Union  cavalrymen  were  sleeping  in 
fancied  security,  without  even  a  suspicion  that  an  enemy  was  near. 

At  a  given  signal  a  deadly  fire  was  opened  upon  them.  In  an  in- 
stant all  was  confusion.  The  volley  which  killed  some  of  the  men  in 
their  tents  and  wounded  others  was  the  first  warning  of  danger.  There 
had  been  no  call  to  arms.  "  Boots  and  saddles  "  had  not  been  sounded 
to  prepare  the  men  for  duty.  The  crack  of  the  enemy's  guns  was  the 
dread  demand  made  upon  these  sleeping  men.  They  were  given  no 
time  to  reach  their  clothing,  and  almost  less  to  grope  for  their  arms  in 
the  darkness.  Used  to  severe  hardships,  they  had  never  yet  failed  to 
respond  to  the  call  of  duty.  Their  pluck  and  endurance  were  now 
subjected  to  the  severest  test  known  in  war,  but  they  did  not  flinch  or 
hesitate.  Almost  without  waiting  for  the  orders  of  their  officers,  the 
men  turned  out  into  the  bitter  cold,  in  their  night  clothes,  and  in  most 
instances  without  shoes,  with  the  snow  ankle  deep.  The  determina- 
tion with  which  the  attack  was  met  astonished  the  Confederates,  who 
expected  to  have  an  easy  capture  after  so  complete  a  surprise. 

"  Fire  at  every  man  on  horseback  !"  was  almost  the  first  order  of 
the  Federal  commanding  officer^ 

"  Men,  do  not  take  to  your  horses  ! "  was  the  next  order. 

The  men  obeyed,  and  directed  their  fire  upon  every  mounted  man, 
and  this  judicious  action  won  them  the  day. 

When  the  Confederates  found  that  they  were  to  be  resisted  to  the 
death,  Captain  Smith,  one  of  the  principal  officers  in  command  of  the 
attacking  force,  shouted  to  his  men  : 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN. 


141 


"  Fire  the 
tents,  and  shoot 
'em  by  the 
light ! " 

He  was  sit- 
ting on  his 
horse  near  the 
head  of  the  row 
of  tents  occu- 
pied by  Com- 
pany A.  A 
sergeant  of  that 
company,  who 
had  been  grop- 
ing for  his 
carbine,  had 
found  it,  and 
was  just  push- 
ing his  head 
through  the  tent 
when  this  order 
rang  out  on  the 
night  air.  He 
dropped  on  his 
knees,  raised 
his  piece  to  his 
shoulder,  and 

fired  at  the  officer  giving  the  command.  The  ball  struck  him  near 
the  eye,  crashed  through  his  brain,  and  he  fell  dead  into  the  mouth 
of  the  tent,  almost  upon  the  man  whose  bullet  had  kiUed  him. 

For  an  hour  or  more  this  fight  in  the  snow  continued,  with  varying 
chances  of  success.  What  the  brave  men  who  were  doing  battle  in  the 
bitter  cold,  without  clothing,  suffered,  no  man  can  tell,  and  yet  they 
never  wavered. 

The  scene  during  the  fight  was  simply  indescribable.  The  men  on 
both  sides  fought  like  tigers,  and  volley  after  volley  made  the  night  hid- 
eous. The  flash  of  the  guns  as  each  was  discharged  was  the  only  relief 
to  the  sombre  darkness.  The  shouts  of  the  men  engaged  could  be  heard 
above  the  din  of  battle,  and  the  cries  of  the  wounded  mingled  strangely 
with  the  confusion  of  the  strife.  As  each  fresh  volley  would  for  a 


COL.  JOHN   A.  MOSEBY. 


A  FAMOUS  CONFEDERATE  PARTISAN  LEADER.   CONSUL  TO  HONG  KONG 
DURING  PRESIDENT  GRANT'S  ADMINISTRATION. 


142  THE  LIFE  OF 

moment  light  up  the  camp  with  its  sickening,  death-like  glare,  some 
comrade  would  fall  and  a  fresh  stream  of  blood  crimson  the  snow. 
How  the  men  fought,  and  how  they  stood  out  during  that  hour,  was  a 
marvel,  even  to  themselves,  and  the  history  of  war  cannot  produce  a 
more  striking  evidence  of  bravery  and  devotion  to  duty. 

Hardly  had  the  flash  from  the  first  volley  died  away  and  the  fight 
actually  begun,  before  the  sorely  tried  cavalrymen  heard  the  long-roll 
beat  in  the  camps  at  Harper's  Ferry  ;  and  the  struggling  men  knew  that 
if  they  could  hold  out  for  a  little  while,  relief  would  come.  The  troops 
in  the  infantry  camps  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river,  on  Bolivar 
Heights,  could  see  the  flash  of  every  gun  and  hear  the  crack  of  every 
death-dealing  carbine,  but  they  were  two  miles1  away.  There  was  no 
cavalry  relief  at  hand,  and  the  conflicting  emotions  of  hope  and  fear  as 
to  the  fate  of  the  courageous  little  band  of  veterans  on  the  mountain, 
filled  the  hearts  of  those  soldiers  who  could  hear  and  see,  but  could  not 
help. 

The  Thirty-fourth  Massachusetts  was  ordered  to  the  rescue  on  a 
"  double-quick"  as  soon  as  it  could  be  rushed  into  line.  But  before  it 
could  reach  the  summit  of  Loudoun  Heights  the  Confederates  had  been 
repulsed,  and  Cole's  Cavalry  had  won  the  fight  upon  the  snow-clad 
mountain-top  that  added  much  to  the  name  and  fame  it  had  already 
gained.  When  night  lifted  and  day  dawned  upon  that  battle-field,  there 
was  a  scene  which  never  can  be  described.  The  dead  lay  upon  the 
ground  frozen  stiff  by  the  terrible  cold.  The  severely  wounded  com- 
plained bitterly  of  the  frost,  and  the  bullet-pierced  tents  of  the  men 
that  did  the  fighting  were  full  of  weary,  powder-stained  veterans,  suffer- 
ing sorely  from  the  effects  of  frozen  feet,  of  which  they  were  unmindful 
until  the  battle  was  won.  Seven  Confederates,  four  of  them  commis- 
sioned officers,  were  killed  in  this  night  attack  upon  Major  Cole's  camp, 
and  a  great  many  more  were  wounded,  some  of  whom  were  carried 
off  by  their  comrades.  Indeed,  those  who  were  able  to  follow  the 
retreat  declared  that  their  path  was  literally  marked  by  a  track  of  blood. 
Major  Cole  lost  two  killed  and  thirteen  wounded.  Captain  Vernon, 
afterward  a  lieutenant-colonel,  lost  an  eye,  and  Lieutenant  Rivers  was 
wounded.  A  large  number  of  the  command  was  sent  to  the  hospital 
with  frozen  feet,  and  two  amputations  were  necessary.  The  suffering 
of  these  brave  men  did  not  stop  with  the  battle. 

General  Sullivan,  who  was  in  command  of  the  district,  rode  over 
from  Harper's  Ferry  after  daylight,  accompanied  by  his  staff.  He  had 
the  men  drawn  up  in  line,  and  eulogized  their  conduct  in  the  strongest 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  i4? 

terms  that  words  could  express.  He  called  the  department  com- 
mander's attention  to  the  gallant  conduct  of  this  handful  of  men, 
requesting  that  his  report  of  the  fight  be  transmitted  to  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief.  General  Kelley,  in  complying  with  General  Sulli- 
van's request,  indorsed  upon  the  report:  "I  cheerfully  comply  with 
the  request  of  General  Sullivan  in  calling  the  attention  of  the  General- 
in-Chief  to  the  gallant  conduct  of  Major  Henry  A.  Cole  and  his  brave 
command.  His  repulse  of  the  murderous  attack  made  by  an  over- 
whelming force  at  4  o'clock  in  a  dark  morning  evinced  a  watchful- 
ness and  bravery  most  commendable."  The  following  commendatory 
order  was  at  once  issued  by  the  General-in-Chief: 

HEADQUARTERS  OF  THE  ARMY, 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  January  20,  1864. 

Major-  General  B.  F.  Kelley,  Cumberland,  Md. 

GENERAL  :  I  have  just  received  from  your  headquarters  Major  Henry 
A.  Cole's  report  of  the  repulse  of  Moseby's  attack  upon  the  camp  on 
Loudoun  Heights  on  the  loth  inst.  Major  Cole  and  his  command,  the 
battalion  of  P.  M.  B.  Cavalry,  Maryland  Volunteers,  deserve  high 
praise  for  their  gallantry  in  repelling  this  rebel  assault. 

Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

H.  W.  HALLECK,  General-in-Chief. 

This  order  was  read  to  the  army,  and  a  copy  forwarded  to  Major 
Cole.  It  was  the  only  instance  during  the  Rebellion  that  such  conspic- 
uous commendation  was  awarded  from  the  headquarters  of  the  army  to 
anything  like  such  a  force  as  that  commanded  by  Major  Cole. 

There  were  a  thousand  thrilling  incidents  connected  with  this  bare- 
footed fight  on  the  mountains,  in  the  snow,  worth  relating,  and  the 
conspicuous  instances  of  almost  unexampled  bravery  would  include 
almost  every  man  in  the  command.  But  there  is  one  touching  incident 
necessary  to  join  the  woof  and  warp  of  this  narration. 

When  daylight  broke  upon  the  scene  there  was  a  young  Confederate 
soldier  lying  upon  the  field  with  a  fatal  wound  in  the  neck,  near  the 
jugular  vein.  He  was  not  more  than  twenty  years  of  age,  and  a  boy 
in  appearance  as  well  as  in  years.  The  officer  who  appears  at  the 
cross-roads  in  the  beginning  of  this  story,  found  him.  He  raised  up  the 
dying  lad  and  asked  him  his  name. 

"My  name  is  Paxton,"  replied  the  boy,  in  broken  tones. 

"My  God  !  are  you  Mr.  Paxton's  son  who  lives  at  the  cross-roads 
towards  Waterville?"  eagerly  inquired  the  officer. 


144  GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

"  I  am,"  was  the  simple  response. 

The  humane  act  of  his  father  in  1862  was  recalled,  and,  full  of  emo- 
tion, the  officer  picked  the  lad  up,  carried  him  to  the  hospital,  laid  him 
upon  an  easy  couch,  and  summoned  the  doctor,  who  replied,  petulantly  : 

"We  can't  care  for  those  men  until  we  look  after  our  own  wounded.'* 

"But  this  boy  must  be  cared  for,"  said  the  officer;  and  in  as  few 
words  as  possible  he  told  the  story  of  1862,  when  five  of  their  men 
belonging  to  Cole's  Cavalry  lay  wounded  upon  Paxton's  farm  at  the 
cross-roads. 

There  was  no  more  parleying,  and  the  boy  was  at  once  carefully 
attended  to,  but  he  was  beyond  human  aid.  All  that  could  be  done 
for  him  to  ease  his  last  moments,  was  done.  All  the  command  felt, 
terribly  as  they  themselves  had  suffered  and  were  suffering,  that  this 
boy  was  entitled  to  every  attention  that  could  be  shown  him. 

"I  do  this,"  said  Mr.  Paxton  in  1862,  when  he  assisted  in  taking 
the  wounded  men  toward  the  river,  "because  I  would  want  others  to 
do  the  same  by  my  boy,  who  is  in  the  Confederate  army,  if  he  should 
be  wounded." 

The  same  officer  and  the  same  men  who  heard  these  words  and 
received  that  favor,  dealt  the  death-blow  to  that  son.  Yet  his  dying 
moments  were  made  easier  by  them  for  the  favor  his  father  had  done. 

For  this  fight  the  battalion  was  raised  to  the  dignity  of  a  regiment, 
and  Major  Henry  A.  Cole  was  made  its  colonel,  and  Captain  Vernon 
its  lieutenant-colonel.  The  other  officers  were  promoted  to  various 
positions  in  the  regiment,  but  neither  officers  nor  men,  in  their  ad- 
vanced places,  lost  an  opportunity  to  refer  with  pride  to  the  "old  bat- 
talion "  and  its  record. 


CHAPTER  XII. 


SUMMONED  TO  WASHINGTON. 

HARD  SERVICE  AFTER  CHATTANOOGA — GRANT  PUTS  HIM  IN  COMMAND  OF  ALL 
THE  CAVALRY  IN  THE  ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC  —  DISGUSTED  AT  BEING 
ORDERED  EAST  —  THE  CONFIDENCE  HE  INSPIRED  —  ROSTER  OF  THE  CAV- 
ALRY CORPS —  DISPUTE  WITH  MEADE  —  CHANGING  SHERIDAN'S  ORDERS  AND 
ITS  RESULTS. 

AFTER  Chattanooga,  what?  Hard  service 
without  cessation.  The  little  soldier  welcomed 
it  unhesitatingly.  He  had  won  corqmendation 
on  all  sides ;  most  ungrudgingly  from  General 
Grant,  who  had  from  the  first  appreciated  the 
young  general,  blunt  of  speech  and  bold  of 
deed,  untiring  in  action,  persistent  of  pursuit, 
and  fertile  of  resources  under  all  conditions.  He 
still  further  appreciated  him  when  he  saw  at 
Chattanooga,  how  his  valor  and  energy  could 
not  alone  secure  victory  for  himself,  but  repair 
also  the  breaches  made  through  others.  Adam 
Badeau  says  in  his  volume  on  the  military  life 
of  Grant,  that  when  first  made  brigadier,  the 
young  commander  eagerly  seized  on  the  oppor- 
tunity to  participate  in  the  pending  campaign  of 
General  Buell,  which  terminated  for  that  officer 
at  Perryville.  Grant,  says  Badeau,  was  "  net- 
tled'* at  Sheridan's  willingness  to  leave  the 
"  Army  of  the  Tennessee,  then  (1862),  by  Hal- 
leek's  removal  to  Washington  and  acceptance  of 
the  post  of  General-in-Chief,  under  '  Uncondi- 
tional Surrender's'  immediate  command."  Ba- 
deau adds  :  "  Grant  followed  Sheridan  later  to 
the  same  field,  and  again  at  Chattanooga  the  fiery  spirit  and  genius  of 
Sheridan  commended  him  to  his  superior.  Grant  always  spoke  in 
10 


GEN.  H.  JUDSON  KILPATRICK, 

A  FAMOUS  UNION  CAVALRY  LEADER, 

AND  MINISTER  TO  CHILI  AFTER 

THE  WAR. 


146  THE  LIFE  OF 

glowing  language  of  Sheridan's  charge  at  Missionary  Ridge,  and  still 
more  warmly  of  his  pursuit  of  the  enemy  afterward.  He  already  saw 
that  quality  so  rare,  even  in  an  illustrious  soldier  —  the  power  to  make 
the  most  of  a  victory. 

"When  Grant  became  (as  lieutenant-general)  the  General-in-Chief, 
he  at  once  put  Sheridan  at  the  head  of  the  eastern  cavalry. 

"  I  remember  asking  him  about  the  new  commander,  who  at  that 
time  I  had  not  seen,  and  his  praise  was  enthusiastic  when  he  described 
the  energy  and  ability,  the  promptness  and  persistency  of  Sheridan. 
Grant  always  became  eloquent  when  he  talked  of  Sheridan  or  Sher- 
man. His  face  would  flush  with  generous  ardor,  his  eyes  gleamed,  and 
he  even  gesticulated  a  little  when  he  spoke  of  the  feats  of  the  two  men 
who  could  ever,  by  any  chance,  become  his  rivals.  After  a  very  short 
time  I  can  testify  to  the  confidence,  the  chivalrous  admiration,  the  com- 
mendation, which  Grant  bestowed  on  his  cavalry  commander. 

"  In  the  Wilderness  campaign  the  young  general  (barely  thirty 
years  of  age)  was  constantly  given  the  most  difficult  and  dangerous 
tasks.  When  he  was  sent  off  on  a  distant  expedition  his  formal  orders 
went  through  Meade,  but  Grant  always  saw  him  in  person,  and  added 
verbal  instructions,  but  leaving  all  detail  of  execution  to  Sheridan. 
They  understood  each  other  easily,  they  had  so  much  in  common." 

Grant  himself  says  in  his  Memoirs,  that  it  was  Halleck  who  sug- 
gested Sheridan's  name.  Here  is  what  Grant  wrote  : 

"  In  one«6f  my  early  interviews  with  the  President,  I  expressed  my 
dissatisfaction  with  the  little  that  had  been  accomplished  by  cavalry  so 
far  in  the  war,  and  the  belief  that  it  was  capable  of  doing  so  much  if 
under  a  competent  leader.  I  said  I  wanted  the  very  best  man  that 
could  be  had. 

u  Halleck  was  present  and  spoke  up,  saying  :  '  How  would  Sheridan 
do  ?  '  I  replied,  '  The  very  man  I  want,'  and  the  President  said  I 
could  have  any  one  I  wanted.  Sheridan  was  telegraphed  for  that  day, 
and  took  command  of  the  cavalry  corps.  This  relieved  General  Alfred 
Pleasonton." 

Sheridan,  however,  did  not  receive  his  new  assignment  without  dis- 
taste. He  had  been  promised  command  of  his  old  corps.  The  battle- 
fields of  Virginia  had  proven  the  grave-yard,  in  character,  of  so  many 
rising  soldiers,  that  it  was  not  to  be  wondered  at,  that  a  brilliant  young 
soldier  like  Sheridan  should  feel  distrust  at  a  command  which  might,  in 
its  results,  ultimately  cloud  his  own  splendidly  growing  reputation. 
So  it  was,  however. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  147 

There  were  yet  over  four  months  of  toilsome  work  before  Sheridan, 
ere  he  was  to  flash,  meteor-like,  over  his  new  field  of  action.  Imme- 
diately after  the  battle  and  victory  of  Chattanooga,  Grant  had  to  be 
assured  of  the  temporary  prostration  at  least,  of  the  rebel  forces  his 
armies  had  so  completely  driven  from  their  chosen  positions.  It  was 
soon  found  that  Bragg  had  fallen  rapidly  back  to  Ringgold,  Georgia, 
and  beyond.  This  southward  movement  relieved  Tennessee.  The 
head-lines  of  the  New  York  Tribune's  dispatches  of  November  27th, 
give  in  staccato  sentences  a  picture  of  the  condition  of  affairs  which  is 
worthy  of  reproduction.  Here  they  are  : 

"  Panic  flight  of  the  rebels  ! 

"  They  burn  the  bridges  behind  them,  all  their  depots  and  stores, 
and  abandon  everything  that  retards  their  flight ! 

"  Three  thousand  prisoners  taken  —  fifty-two  cannon — 5,000  stand 
of  arms  and  ten  battle-flags  ! 

"  The  rebels  fly,  leaving  Longstreet  to  take  care  of  himself!" 

A  dispatch  of  the  26th,  says  : 

"  Sheridan  reached  Chickamauga  Station  at  4  P.  M.  He  captured 
500  prisoners,  four  guns,  and  a  number  of  pontoons." 

Quartermaster-General  M.  C.  Meigs,  in  a  most  brilliant  dispatch^ 
wrote  that  "  the  battle  extended  six  miles  along  Missionary  Ridge  and 
for  several  miles  along  Lookout  Mountain.  No  better  ordered  or 
directed  battle  has  taken  place  during  the  war." 

The  condition  of  affairs  that  followed  is  shown  by  this  dispatch  of 
December  3d :  "  Generals  Hooker  and  Palmer  evacuated  Ringgold  this 
morning  [Tuesday,  December  ist].  There  is  no  enemy  within  twenty- 
three  miles.  But  they  are  in  force  at  Tunnel  Hill."  That  was  at  least 
sixty  miles  south  of  Chattanooga. 

Sherman,  however,  with  part  of  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee  (Mc- 
Pherson  held  Northern  Alabama  with  the  balance)  and  two  divisions 
of  the  Fourth  Corps  (Granger's),  Army  of  the  Cumberland,  was  im- 
mediately sent  after  Longstreet,  and  to  relieve  East  Tennessee  entirely. 
Sheridan  and  his  division  were  part  of  this  command  which,  in  the  slush 
and  snow  of  early  winter,  marched  over  the  mountains  to  Knoxville. 
Longstreet  with  all  of  the  regular  Confederate  forces  under  his  com- 
mand, made  a  hasty  retreat  and  complete  evacuation  of  the  entire 
region,  falling  back  eastward  into  Southwest  Virginia.  The  relief  thus 
afforded  had  a  great  effect  on  the  preponderating  Union  sentiment,  and 


148  GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

the  Tennessee  mountaineers  flocked  by  the  thousands  to  the  Union 
army. 

Our  troops  at  Chattanooga  were  in  December  and  January  placed 
in  winter  quarters,  along  the  Lookout  Valley,  holding  the  railroad 
to  Loudon,  and  at  Huntsville,  Northern  'Alabama,  helping  to  keep 
open  the  railroad  and  river  communications  with  Nashville,  Memphis, 
and  Louisville.  Sheridan  was  at  Knoxville  in  January,  1864,  when 
on  the  1 2th  of  that  month,  Grant  was  there,  leaving  that  day  to  com- 
plete a  tour  of  the  southern  portion  of  the  great  territorial  area  under 
his  command.  The  Union  army  .was  reported  as  "  in  good  condition 
with  plenty  to  eat/'  but  the  weather  was  bitterly  cold.  Active,  though 
isolated  rebel  movements  began  to  be  reported,  showing  their  desire  to 
at  once  resume  offensive-defensive  operations.  A  news  dispatch  from 
Chattanooga,  under  date  of  January  15,  1864,  says  : 

"  When  the  pursuit  of  Bragg  ceased  at  Ringgold,  Sherman  was  sent 
to  the  relief  of  Burnside,  then  besieged  at  Knoxville  by  Longstreet. 
Two  divisions  of  the  Fourth  Corps  (Granger's) ,  of  Thomas'  command, 
were  pushed  up  another  route  —  so  together  to  drive  Longstreet  from 
Eastern  Tennessee.  When  Grant  left  Knoxville  the  military  world 
was  held  fast  in  the  bonds  of  winter.  There  is  no  likelihood  of  any- 
•  thing  being  done  on  either  side  for  the  present.  But  as  soon  as  the 
weather  permits  our  forces  will  be  in  motion." 

That  the  time  for  "  motion"  soon  came  is  seen  in  a  Chattanooga 
dispatch  which  locates  General  McPherson's  troops  (Sherman's  Army 
of  the  Tennessee)  as  destroying  the  bridges  on  some  portion  of  the 
Mobile  and  Ohio  railroad  in  Mississippi  and  Tennessee,  and  a  long 
distance  from  Knoxville.  This  was  probably  done  by  a  portion  of 
General  G.  M.  Dodge's  command,  which  had  been  left  at  Decatur  and 
along  the  railroad  line  to  Corinth,  southwest,  and  to  Nashville  at  the 
north. 

The  camp  and  bivouac  records  of  this  period  convey  interesting 
evidence  of  the  esteem  in  which  Sheridan  was  held.  They  also  show 
the  feeling  over  the  battle  of  Chickamauga  which  existed  in  the  Army 
of  the  Cumberland.  In  Sheridan's  division,  especially,  the  cry  was 
"  Chickamauga  !  "  when  rushing  up  Missionary  Ridge.  When  the 
division  charged  over  the  summit,  a  rebel  captain  was  captured  ,by  a 
drummer  boy  of  one  regiment,  and  refusing  to  go  to  the  rear,  our 
boy  pushed  him  upon  the  breast-works,  and  gave  him  a  kick  that  sent 
him  headlong  down  the  hill,  accompanying  the  demonstration  with  a 
ringing  shout  of  "  Chickamauga  !  d — n  you,  Chickamauga  !  " 


ONE  OF  SHERIDAN'S  TROOPERS. 

GEN.  GEORGE  A.  OUSTER, 

As  He  Appeared  on  Passing  Through  Harper's  Ferry  to  Join  General  Sheridan,  Aug.  7,   I  864. 
[From  a  Sketch  by  J.  E.  Taylor.'] 


i  jo  THE  LIFE  OF 

A  favorite  camp  song  of  this  period,  under  the  title  of  "  Keep  Step 
to  the  Music  of  the  Union,"  has  this  verse  : 

"  So  Sheridan,  our  leader,  proclaimed, 
While  fearlessly  through  all   the  battle 
His  soul  like  a  thunderbolt  flamed. 
O !    still  shall   his  patriot  engine 
Crash  over  disloyalty's  cars, 
Until  every  State  that  seceded 
Returns  to  the  old  stripes  and  stars." 

The  poetry  is  rude  and  the  rhythm  is  poor,  but  the  sentiment  is  un- 
questionable. 

February  and  March  passed  unbroken  by  serious  incident  with  the 
Army  of  the  Cumberland.  Evidence  accumulated  that  the  Confeder- 
ate army,  under  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  was  making  ready  by 
an  active  campaign  to  meet  and  anticipate  offensively  the  advance  that 
the  Union  forces  would  soon  make,  southward  from  Chattanooga,  and 
indeed  from  the  Tennessee  River  in  general. 

Grant  was  in  Nashville  early  in  March,  when  summoned  to  Wash- 
ington. He  had  been  commissioned  lieutenant-general,  the  grade 
only  held  theretofore  in  the  American  Army  by  Washington  and  Scott, 
but  destined  after  Grant's  further  promotion  to  be  held  by  both  Sher- 
man and  Sheridan.  On  the  12th  of  March  Grant  was  at  Washington. 
On  the  i  yth  it  was  reported  he  would  return  West.  In  a  few  days 
thereafter  it  was  known  to  the  country  and  the  Army  of  the  Cumber- 
land, that  the  lieutenant-general  would  direct  in  person  the  operations 
of  our  force  in  Virginia  and  against  Richmond,  and  that  its  most  bril- 
liant and  youngest  division  commander,  Philip  Henry  Sheridan,  had 
been  ordered  east  for  service. 

On  the  8th  of  April,  1864.  the  following  order  was  made : 

4 'Major-General  P.  H.  Sheridan  is  assigned  to  the  command  of  the 
Cavalry  Corps  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac." 

The  importance  and  numerical  character  of  that  command  may  be 
seen  from  the  following  roster  (May  5,  1864),  as  subsequently  pub- 
lished by  the  War  Department : 

COMMANDING  THE  CAVALRY  CORPS. 
MAJOR-GEXERAL  PHILIP  H.  SHERIDAN. 

ESCORT. 
Sixth  United  States,  Captain  Ira  W.  Claflin. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  151 

FIRST  DIVISION. 
BRIGADIER-GENERAL  A.  T.  A.  TORBETT. 

First  Brigade. 
Brigadier-General  George  A.  Custer. 

First  Michigan,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Peter  Stagg. 
Fifth  Michigan,  Colonel  Russell  A.  Alger. 
Sixth  Michigan,  Major  James  H.  Kidd. 
Seventh  Michigan,  Major  Henry  W.  Granger. 

Second  Brigade. 
Colonel  Thomas  C.  Deven. 

Fourth  New  York,*  Lieutenant-Colonel  William  R.  Parnell. 
Sixth  New  York,  Lieutenant-Colonel  William  H.  Crocker. 
Ninth  New  York,  Colonel  William  Sackett 
Seventeenth  Pennsylvania,  Lieutenant-Colonel  James  Q^  Anderson. 

Reserve  Brigade. 
Brigadier-General  Wesley  Merritt. 

Nineteenth  New  York  (ist  Dragoons,)  Colonel  Alfred  Gibbs. 

Sixth  Pennsylvania,  Major  James  Starr. 

First  United  States,  Captain  Nelson  B.  Sweitzer. 

Second  United  States,  Captain  T.  F.  Rodenbough. 

Fifth  United  States, f  Captain  Abraham  K.  Arnold. 

SECOND  DIVISION. 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL  DAVID  McM.  GREGG. 

First  Brigade. 
Brigadier-General  Henry  E.  Davies,  Jr. 

First  Massachusetts,  Major  Lucius  M.  Sargent. 
First  New  Jersey,  Lieutenant-Colonel  John  W.  Kester. 
Sixth  Ohio,  Colonel  William  Stedman. 
First  Pennsylvania,  Colonel  John  P.  Taylor. 

Second  Brigade. 
Colonel  J.  Irvin  Gregg. 

First  Maine,  Colonel  Charles  H.  Smith. 

Tenth  New  York,  Major  M.  Henry  Avery. 

Second  Pennsylvania,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Joseph  P.  Brinton. 

*  Detached  guarding  trains. 

t  Companies  B,  F,  and  K,  under  Captain  Julius  W.  Mason,  detached  as  escort  to  Lieutenant- 
General  U.  S.  Grant. 


1 52  THE  LIFE  OF 


Fourth  Pennsylvania,  Lieutenant-Colonel  George  H.  Covode. 
Eighth  Pennsylvania,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Samuel  Wilson. 
Sixteenth  Pennsylvania,  Lieutenant-Colonel  John  K.  Robison. 


THIRD  DIVISION. 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL  JAMES  H.  WILSON. 

Escort. 
Eighth  Illinois  (detachment),  Lieutenant  William  W.  Long. 

First  Brigade. 
Colonel  Timothy  M.  Bryan,  Jr. 

First  Connecticut,  Major  Erastus  Blakeslee. 

Second  New  York,  Colonel  Otto  Harhaus. 

Fifth  New  York,  Lieutenant-Colonel  John  Hammond. 

Eighteenth  Pennsylvania,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Wm.  P.  Brinton. 

Second  Brigade. 
Colonel  George  H.  Chapman. 

Third  Indiana,  Major  William  Patton. 

Eighth  New  York,  Lieutenant-Colonel  William  H.  Benjamin. 

First  Vermont,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Addison  W.  Preston. 


The  effective  force  of  each  brigade  would  average  two  thousand, 
and  the  total  cavalry  under  the  new  commander  would  aggregate  at 
least  fourteen  thousand  men  and  horses.  Subsequently  Sheridan  had 
command  also  of  the  cavalry  of  the  Army  of  the  James,  consisting  of 
the  following  troops  under  : 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL  AUGUST  V.  KAUTZ. 

First  Brigade. 
Colonel  Simon  H.  Mix. 

First  District  of  Columbia,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Everton  J.  Conger. 
Third  New  York,  Lieutenant-Colonel  George  W.  Lewis. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  153 

Second  Brigade. 
Colonel  Samuel  P.  Spear. 

Fifth  Pennsylvania,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Christopher  Kleinz. 
Eleventh  Pennsylvania,  Lieutenant-Colonel  George  Stetzel. 

Artillery. 
New  York  Light,  Eighth  Battery,  (section,)  Lieutenant  Peter  Morton. 

UNATTACHED  TROOPS. 

First  United  States  Colored  Cavalry,  Major  Harvey  W.  Brown. 
Second  United  States  Colored  Cavalry,  Colonel  George  W.  Cole. 
Massachusetts  Heavy  Artillery,  Thirteenth  Company,  (pontoniers,)  Captain 

John  Pickering,  Jr. 

\ 

Brigadier-General  Averill  commanded  a  cavalry  division  operating 
in  the  valley  under  Hunter  first,  and  afterwards  with  Crook.  He  was 
with  Sheridan  from  the  latter's  entrance  in  the  Valley  of  the  Shenan- 
doah,  at  a  later  date. 

There  was  no  boy's  play  ahead,  but  work  that  was  to  make  a  conti- 
nent rock,  and  whose  reverberations  were  heard  round  the  world. 

A  story  is  told  at  this  time,  and  early  in  the  Wilderness  movements, 
which  aptly  illustrates  Sheridan's  independence.  General  Meade,  in 
immediate  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  changed  the  orders 
of  Wilson  at  Todd's  Tavern.  The  spunky  little  commander,  on  learn- 
ing of  this  interference,  roundly  demanded  to  know  "if  he  (General 
Meade)  commanded  the  cavalry,  or  whether  he  (Sheridan)  did,  by 

G ."  There  was  a  stormy  period,  and  then  Meade  gracefully 

acknowledged  he  was  wrong.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  had  Sheridan's 
orders  not  been  tampered  with  by  Meade  on  the.  evening  of  May  yth, 
1864,  Spottsylvania  would  have  been  successfully  held  in  all  human 
probability  against  Lee,  and  the  terrible  fight  at  the  Bloody  Angle 
would  not  have  occurred.  Badeau  says,  that  while  Grant's  written 
orders  to  Sheridan  were  always  sent  through  Meade,  yet  that  he 
personally  consulted  with  his  cavalry  commander  on  all  such  matters. 


{/)  . 

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CHAPTER  XIII. 


FROM  THE  WILDERNESS  TO  JAMES  RIVER. 

HOWARD'S  REVIEW  OF  THE  FIELD  —  FROM  VIRGINIA  TO  LOUISIANA  —  THE~CAV- 
ALRY  AND  ITS  TEMPER  —  MOVING  TO  THE  WILDERNESS  —  GUARDING  ROADS 
AND  SUPPLIES — THE  LOSSES  IN  THE  MAY  FIGHTING —  SHERIDAN'S  FIRST 

GREAT  RAID  ROUND  RICHMOND  —  THE    YELLOW    TAVERN   FIGHT — REJOINING 
THE    ARMY. 

GENERAL  OLIVER  O.  HOWARD  says  in  the  Century  of  July,  1887,* 
that : 

"On  the  1 8th  of  March,  1864,  Grant  and  Sherman  were  together 
at  Nashville.  Grant  having  received  promotion,  immediately  set  out 
for  Washington,  and  Sherman  (having  returned  from  East  Tennessee 
and  Northern  Alabama)  accompanied  him  as  far  as  Cincinnati.  That 
meeting  and  journey  wrere  of  interest.  They  involve  the  thorough  dis- 
cussion and  planning  of  eventful  campaigns.  Soldiers  like  Grant  and 
Sherman  consider  first  the  forces  at  their  disposal,  and  next  a  plan  of 
operations.  Grant  had  now  under  his  general  charge  all  the  Union 
armies, —  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  under  Meade  ;  that  of  the  Ohio, 
near  Knoxville,  under  Schofield ;  that  of  the  Cumberland,  under  Thomas, 
near  Chattanooga  ;  that  of  the  Tennessee,  under  McPherson,  scattered 
from  Huntsville,  Alabama,  to  the  Mississippi ;  that  of  the  Gulf,  under 
Banks,  in  Louisiana ;  besides  subordinate  detachments,  under  Steele 
and  others,  in  Arkansas  and  further  west. 

"  Grant  took  the  whole  field  into  his  thought.  He  made  three 
parts  to  the  long,  irregular  line  of  armies,  which  extended  from  Vir- 
ginia to  Texas.  He  gave  to  Banks  the  main  work  beyond  the  Missis- 
sippi ;  to  Sherman  the  middle  part,  covering  the  hosts  of  McPherson, 
Thomas,  and  Schofield,  and  reserved  to  himself  the  remainder.  The 
numbers  were  known,  at  least  on  paper ;  the  plan,  promptly  adopted, 
was  simple  and  comprehensive :  Break,  and  keep  broken,  the  connect- 
ing links  of  the  enemy's  armies ;  beat  them  one  by  one ;  unite  for  a 
final  consummation.  Sherman's  part  was  plain.  Grant's  plan,  flexible 

*  "  The  Struggle  for  Atlanta,"  Vol.  XXXIV.,  pp.  442-63. 


i  $6  THE  LIFE  OF 

enough  to  embrace  his  own,  afforded  him  'infinite  satisfaction.'  It 
looked  like  '  enlightened  war.'  " 

These  words  of  Howard's  are  quoted  in  order  to  give  that  breadth 
and  significance  to  the  whole  vast  field  of  operations  which  will  enable 
us  fully  to  understand  the  great  part  assigned,  subordinate  in  outward 
seeming  though  it  was,  to  the  young  major-general  and  division  com- 
mander whom  Grant,  with  his  unerring  sagacity  as  to  soldiers,  had 
drafted  from  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland  to  that  of  the  Potomac,  and 
placed  in  command  of  all  its  superb  array  of  cavalry  troopers.  The 
struggle  was  reduced  to  a  system  of  pounding  on  our  part,  costly,  heroic, 
and  full  of  terrible  sacrifice.  In  it  Sheridan  had  to  do  a  wonderful 
part,  breaking  constantly  the  communications  and  supply  lines  of  an 
already  exhausted  foe,  holding,  however,  to  its  position  —  the  key  of 
the  Confederate  struggle  —  with  a  tremendous  tenacity  and  a  slowly 
expiring  vitality  which  never  yielded  until  annihilation  was  threatened. 
Howard's  few  words  indicate  also  what  proved  to  be  the  weak  points 
in  Grant's  comprehensive  survey.  It  was  a  weakness  he  received  and 
did  not  create.  Sherman  was  able  in  the  Atlanta  campaign  to  break 
the  last  sturdy  resistance  of  the  Central  South,  and  then  by  his  "  march 
to  the  sea,"  to  prove  that  the  Confederacy  was  indeed  a  "  hollow  shell." 
If  the  operations  projected  for  the  Southwest  had  been  as  vigorously 
executed,  the  Civil  War  would  doubtless  have  closed  some  months 
earlier.  A  brief  review  of  Howard's  references  to  that  "third"  of  the 
Union  field,  will  throw  some  light  on  the  causes  of  the  long  lingering 
vitality  displayed  by  Lee  and  Johnston  during  the  terrible  punish- 
ment inflicted  by  Meade,  Sheridan,  and  Sherman,  in  their  several  places, 
and  under  Grant's  orders. 

Howard  speaks  of  the  Union  lines  as  irregularly  extending  from 
Virginia  to  Texas.  In  reality  they  reached  only,  as  to  the  Southwest, 
to  the  Indian  Territory  at  Fort  Gibson,  and  to  Shreveport,  Louisiana. 
The  points  held  on  the  Gulf  coast  had  little  or  no  importance  at  the  time 
named  by  Howard,  who  is  also  a  little  wrong  in  giving  Banks  full 
sway.  That  general  was  charged  with  an  important  movement  up  the 
Red  River  to  Shreveport.  General  Steele  at  Little  Rock  was  required 
to  move  simultaneously  from  that  point  southwesterly  toward  Shreve- 
port. He  moved  twenty-two  days  later,  and  as  a  result  Banks  was  first 
overwhelmed  by  a  conjunction  of  the  Confederates  under  Dick  Taylor, 
Kirby  Smith,  and  Sterling  Price.  Steele  was  then  beaten  in  detail  and 
driven  back  by  the  forces  under  the  two  latter  commanders.  General 
S.  R.  Curtis  was  commander  of  the  Department  of  Kansas,  and  Gen- 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  157 

eral  James  G.  Blunt  was  his  fighting  lieutenant  in  the  field.  Under 
the  plans  first  sanctioned  and  then  overthrown  by  Halleck,  before 
Grant  assumed  chief  command  of  field  operations,  Blunt  was  to  have  had 
command  of  some  twelve  thousand  men,  mostly  mounted,  who  from  Fort 
Smith,  Arkansas,  on  the  border  of  the  Indian  Territory,  were  to  have 
raided  in  the  rear  of  the  Confederate  armies  of  the  Southwest,  and 
broken  up  the  supply  depots  of  Northern  Texas  and  Louisiana.  Blunt's 
troops  were  unwarrantably  taken  from  him  by  Halleck's  order,  and 
transferred  to  Steele,  who  through  that  action  moved  too  slow,  and 
really  caused  Banks'  defeat  on  the  Red  River.  These  facts  are  worth 
understanding,  as  they  practically  caused  a  prolongation  of  the  war,«by 
enabling  the  Confederate  authorities  to  retain  unharmed  its  enormous 
cattle  and  wheat  sources  in  Texas,  and  preserving  also  for  nearly 
twelve  months  longer  the  power  of  reinforcement  from  the  armies  in 
the  Southwest.  These  actions  and  changes  sprang  from  the  prejudices, 
and  not  the  wisdom  of  Halleck,  Steele,  and  other  officers  of  the  regular 
army,  who  were  in  high  places.  The  men  of  Kansas  were  "anti- 
slavery  radicals,"  and  that  was  sufficient  until  Grant  assumed  full  com- 
mand, and  obtained  thereby  the  necessary  understanding  of  the  whole 
field.  One  of  his  first  orders  was  to  assign  Rosecrans  to  command  of 
the  Missouri  Department,  and  Pleasonton  as  second,  with  headquarters 
at  St.  Louis. 

On  Sheridan's  advent,  the  cavalry  arm  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
was  found  somewhat  demoralized  by  the  same  influences  that  had  up 
to  that  date  injured  the  morale  of  the  entire  force.  It  was  in  large 
part  due  to  the  army's  undue  nearness  to  the  national  capital,  and 
the  political  forces  collected  there,  which  sometimes  proved  potent  to 
arouse  personal  ambition  and  disturb  discipline.  Even  Gettysburg  had 
not  succeeded  in  restoring,  or  rather,  in  creating,  a  fighting  unity.  It 
needed  the  presence  of  commanders  untouched  by  the  forces  which  had 
for  nearly  three  years,  more  or  less,  unfavorably  affected  the  efficiency 
of  a  great  and  valiant  soldiery.  It  was  also  necessary  that  the  com- 
mander should  have  rank  enough  to  command  all  the  gallant  generals 
who  were  there  upon  the  final  battle-fields.  In  the  promotion  of 
U.  S.  Grant  this  was  achieved.  As  to  the  cavalry,  it  was  ready  to 
receive  the  soldier  who  had  stormed  Missionary  Ridge.  Major-General 
Alfred  Pleasonton,  a  splendid  organizer  and  tactician  at  least,  but  who 
was  not  popular  with  his  brigadiers,  was  sent  by  Grant  to  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Missouri.  Sheridan  took  his  command.  From  that  hour 
Pleasonton  was  forgotten.  What  a  galaxy  of  men,  mainly  young, 
too,  like  himself,  did  the  new  trooper  find  awaiting  his  commands ! 


i?8  THE  LIFE  OF 

There  were  Torbett,  Merritt,  Deven,  Crook,  Kautz,  Chapman,  Custer, 
Henry  E.  Davies,  Jr.,  the  Greggs,  Spear,  Buford,  Irving,  Mackenzie, 
Bryan,  Dahlgren,  Alger,  and  two  score -more,  as  famous  as  those,  who 
have  not  been  named  invidiously,  or  to  detract  from  the  fame  of  others. 

At  midnight,  or  soon  after,  May  the  3d  and  4th,  1863,  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac  moved  from  its  position  north  of  the  Rappahannock,  on  a 
march  towards  the  Wilderness,  entering  on  that  campaign  which  was  to 
close  nearly  one  year  later  by  the  surrender  of  the  Southern  Confederacy. 
At  the  beginning  of  this  great  campaign  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  had 
been  reorganized  into  three  infantry  corps  —  the  Second  (Hancock) , 
the  Fifth  (Warren),  and  the  Sixth  (Sedgwick,  afterwards  Wright). 
The  Ninth  (Burnside)  served  as  an  independent  command  until  May 
24th,  when  it  was  permanently  attached  to  Meade's  army.  A  cavalry 
corps  under  Sheridan  completed  the  organization.  The  Confederate 
army  was  composed  of  three 'corps  —  Longstreet's  (later  R.  H.  Ander- 
son's) on  their  left,  Swell's  in  the  centre,  and  A.  P.  Hill's  on  the  right, 
General  Robert  E.  Lee  commanding  the  whole. 

It  is  not  a  necessary  part  of  this  work  to  describe  the  tremendous 
conflict  of  the  Wilderness,  or  of  Spottsylvania,  Cold  Harbor,  and 
North  Anna.  Our  work  is  with  the  cavalry  under  its  new  commander, 
so  soon'  to  prove  himself  to  be  a  very  thunderbolt  of  war.  In  the  first 
movements,  Sheridan's  cavalry  was  charged  with  the  necessary  but, 
perhaps,  prosaic  duty,  even  to  a  soldier,  of  guarding  supply  trains  and 
lines  of  communication.  The  corps  under  Sheridan's  command  had 
for  brigade  commanders  such  leaders,  in  the  First  Division,  as  Brig- 
adier-General George  A.  Custer,  Colonel  Thomas  C.  Deven,  and 
Brigadier-General  Wesley  Merritt.  In  the  Second  Division  were 
Brigadier-General  David  McM.  Gregg,  and  Brigadier-General  Henry 
E.  Davies,  Jr.,  and  Colonel  J.  Irvin  Gregg.  The  Third  Division 
was  commanded  by  Brigadier-General  James  H.  Wilson,  and  Colonels 
Timothy  M.  Bryan,  Jr.,  and  George  H.  Chapman.  The  total  effective 
force  of  the  Union  army  has  been  carefully  estimated  at  118,000  men, 
and  that  of  Lee's  at  61,000.  It  must  be  remembered  that  under  all 
military  rules,  the  Confederates,  being  on  their  own  ground,  chosen  for 
defense,  were  at  least  equal  to  the  Union  forces  in  operating  strength. 
At  Cold  Harbor,  on  the  ist  of  June,  twenty-eight  days  after  beginning 
to  cross  the  Rappahannock,  there  were  reported  "  present  for  duty" 
103,8/5.  The  cavalry  corps  was  not  "present."  The  strength  or 
losses  of  Lee's  army  are  nowhere  authoritatively  given.  According 
to  the  late  Colonel  Scott,  the  Union  army  lost  during  that  memorable 
battle  month,  as  follows  : 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 


'59 


X. 

•S3 

^    *Jc 

•S 

1 

|| 

^j 

1 

I 

0 

1 

The  Wilderness,          .         .         .         .  »      . 

2,246 

12,037 

3,383 

17,666 

Spottsylvania  Court  House, 

2,725 

13,416 

2,258 

i8,399 

North  Anna  and  Tolopotomy,  . 

591 

2,734 

66  1 

3,986 

Cold  Harbor,      ...... 

1,844 

0,077 

1,816 

12,737 

Sheridan's  first  expedition, 

64 

337 

224 

625 

Sheridan's  second  expedition,    . 

150 

741 

625 

1,516 

Grand  total  from  the  Wilderness  to  the 

7,620 

-g  -342 

8,076 

C4.Q2Q 

The  loss  has  been  counted  as  enormous.  Aggregated  in  this  wise 
it  certainly  seems  so.  But  remembering  that  much  of  the  earlier  and 
severer  fighting  was  done  in  the  Wilderness,  amid  timber,  brush,  and 
undergrowth,  and  that  the  struggle  over  the  "  Bloody  Angle  "  at  Spottsyl- 
vania was  one  of  the  terribly  contested  events  in  modern  warfare,  it  will 
be  seen  that  the  loss  is  not  greater,  as  a  whole,  than  that  of  other 
battles  of  the  Civil  War ;  certainly  not  more,  proportionably  to  time 
and  troops,  than  was  the  case  at  Pea  Ridge,  Vicksburg,  Port  Hudson, 
Perryville,  Stone  River,  Chickamauga,  and  Chattanooga.  The  differ- 
ence between  losses  under  Grant  and  those  incurred  under  other  Union 
commanders  in  Virginia,  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  Grant  moved  forward, 
and  the  others  generally  fell  back  after  winning  or  losing  a  battle. 
Grant's  losses  were  always  gains  in  the  game  of  war. 

Besides  the  continual  skirmishing  and  the  arduous  duties  devolving 
on  troopers  in  a  moving  army,  the  cavalry  corps  fought  several  splen- 
did independent  engagements.  On  the  5th  of  May,  when  Warren's 
leading  division,  under  General  Getty,  first  became  engaged  with  the 
enemy,  Wilson  with  his  cavalry  division  was  further  south,  and  was 
cut  off  from  the  rest  of  the  army.  On  the  arrival  of  Hancock's 
troops  the  battle  became  general.  In  this  day's  fighting  Brigadier- 
General  Alexander  Hays,  a  classmate  of  Grant's,  was  killed.  During 
the  afternoon,  Sheridan  sent  Gregg's  division  to  Todd's  Tavern  in 
search  of  Wilson,  whom  he  found  engaged  with  a  superior  force 
under  the  Confederate  cavalry  leader,  Rosser.  Fortunately,  together 
they  were  enabled  to  assume  the  aggressive  and  drive  the  enemy  beyond 
Corbin's  bridge,  which  was  done  in  fine  style. 


160  THE  LIFE  OF 

On  the  morning  of  the  6th,  Sheridan  moved  to  connect  with  Han- 
cock's left,  there  to  attack  the  enemy's  cavalry,  which  was  endeavoring 
to  get  to  our  left  and  rear.  They  had'noTyet  learned  the  quality  of  the 
new  commander  they  were  opposing,  and  so  were  not  as  cautious  as 
they  soon  after  became.  Sheridan  met,  attacked,  and  defeated  the 
enemy,  commanded  by  Stuart  in  person,  at  Todd's  Tavern  and  at  the 
junction  of  Furnace  and  Brock  roads.  Later  in  the  day  he  was  himself 
attacked,  and  again  defeated  the  enemy.  The  sound  of  these  engage- 
ments caused  Hancock  to  make  stronger  his  position  at  the  Brock  road's 
opening.  In  the  closing  of  that  day's  engagement  Longstreet  was 
severely  wounded,  and  Lee  in  person  took  command  of  his  right  wing. 

The  6th  of  May  closed  the  fighting  in  the  Wilderness,  General 
Custer  on  the  following  morning  moving  against  the  rebel  cavalry  and 
driving  them  from  Catharpin  Furnace  to  Todd's  Tavern.  No  effort  at 
resistance  was  made  by  Lee. 

The  movement  to  Spottsylvania  at  once  began.  Sheridan  concen- 
trated at  Todd's  Tavern  and  had  considerable  severe  fighting,  lasting 
till  long  after  nightfall.  He  held  the  field  at  its  close.  The  purpose 
of  the  stand  taken  here  was  clear.  It  was  to  prevent  our  cavalry  press- 
ing too  sharply  the  rear  of  Lee's  army  as  it  fell  back  to  a  stronger 
position. 

Grant  says,  Sheridan  issued  the  necessary  orders  for  seizing  Spott- 
sylvania and  holding  the  bridge  over  the  Po  River,  which  Lee's  troops 
would  have  to  cross  to  get  to  Spottsylvania.  But  Meade,  on  his 
arrival,  changed  Sheridan's  orders  to  Merritt,  who  was  holding  the 
bridge.  The  road  was  thereby  left  free  for  Anderson's  advance.  He  had 
succeeded  to  Longstreet's  command.  Wilson  had  obeyed  orders,  seized 
the  little  town,  and  was  holding  it  with  his  cavalry  division.  If  Lee's 
left  had  been  detained  at  the  Po  by  Merritt,  as  Sheridan  directed,  Wil- 
son could  have  been  reinforced.  Warren  would  have  come  up  while 
the  gallant  Merritt  with  his  two  brigades  was  resisting  Anderson's 
advance.  However,  the  compulsory  evacuation  of  Spottsylvania  by 
Wilson  on  that  day  enabled  the  terrific  battle  so  named  in  the  annals 
of  the  Civil  War  to  be  fought  as  it  was,  and  at  that  point. 

Sheridan  now  had  other  work  to  do.  It  was  on  the  morning  of  the 
8th  —  that  of  the  opening  storm  of  Spottsylvania  —  that  Grant  ordered 
Sheridan  to  cut  loose  from  the  army  and  go  round  Richmond.  How 
well  and  swiftly  he  did  the  work  assigned  him  can  be  seen  in  the 
fact  that  on  the  nth  instant,  the  closing  day  of  the  great  battle  of 
Spottsylvania,  Sheridan  sent  back  a  dispatch  of  his  successful  progress 
toward  and  around  Richmond.  It  was  in  this  raid  that  he  met  and 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 


161 


overthrew 
Stuart ;  and 
that  he  also 
successfully 
withstood 
the  tempta- 
tion of  en- 
tering Rich- 
mond, which 
undoubted- ' 
ly,  he  could 
have  done. 

The  sto- 
ry of  Sheri- 
dan's ser- 
vices after 
the  Wilder- 
ness, and 
before  the 
Army  of  the  ' 
Potomac 
was  quar- 
tered on  the 
James,  can 
be  well  told 
in  Grant's 
words  : 

"On  the 
8th  of  May, 

just  before  the  battle  of  the  Wilderness,  and  when  we  were  moving  on 
Spottsylvania,  I  directed  Sheridan  verbally  to  cut  loose  from  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac,  pass  around  to  the  left  of  Lee's  army  and  attack  his 
cavalry ;  to  cut  the  two  railroads  —  one  running  southwest  through 
Gordonsville,  Charlottesville,  and  Lynchburg,  the  other  to  Richmond 
—  and  when  compelled  to  do  so  for  the  want  of  forage  or  rations,  to 
move  on  to  the  James  River  and  draw  from  Butler's  supplies.  This 
move  took  him  past  the  entire  rear  of  Lee's  army.  The  objects  of  this 
move  were  threefold : 

"  First,  If  successfully  executed,  and  it  was,  he  would  annoy  the 
enemy  by  cutting  his  line  of  supplies,  and  destroy  or  get  for  his  own  use 
supplies  in  store  at  their  rear,  or  coming  up. 
ll 


GEN.   A.   T.   A.   TORBETT, 

SHERIDAN'S  CHIEF  OF  STAFF    IN    THE   SHENANDOAH   VALLEY. 


162  THE  LIFE  OF 

"  Second,  He  would  draw  the  enemy's  cavalry  after  him,  and  thus 
better  protect  our  flanks,  rear,  and  trains,  than  by  remaining  with  the 
army. 

u  Third,  His  absence  would  save  the  trains  drawing  his  forage  and 
other  supplies  from  Fredericksburg,  which  had  now  become  our  base. 
He  started  at  daylight  the  next  morning  and  accomplished  a  great  deal 
more  than  was  expected.  It  was  sixteen  days  before  he  got  back  to 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  The  course  Sheridan  took  was  directly  to 
Richmond.  Before  night  Stuart,  commanding  the  Confederate  cav- 
alry, came  on  the  rear  of  his  command.  But  Sheridan's  advance  kept 
on,  crossed  the  North  Anna,  and  at  Beaver  Dam,  a  station  on  the  Vir- 
ginia Central  railroad,  recaptured  400  Union  prisoners  on  their  way 
to  Richmond,  destroyed  the  road,  and  used  and  destroyed  a  large 
amount  of  their  subsistence  and  medical  stores.  Stuart,  seeing  that  our 
cavalry  was  pushing  toward  Richmond,  abandoned  the  pursuit  on  the 
morning  of  the  loth,  and,  by  a  detour  and  exhausting  march,  interposed 
between  Sheridan  and  Richmond  at  Yellow  Tavern,  only  about  six 
miles  north  of  the  city.  Sheridan  destroyed  the  railroad  and  more 
supplies  at  Ashland,  and  on  the  nth  arrived  in  Stuart's  front.  A 
severe  engagement  ensued  in  which  the  losses  were  heavy  on  both 
sides,  but  the  rebels  were  beaten,  their  leader  mortally  wounded,  and 
some  guns  and  many  prisoners  captured. 

"  Sheridan  passed  through  the  outer  defenses  of  Richmond,  and 
could  no  doubt  have  passed  through  the  inner  ones.  But  having  no 
supports  near,  he  could  not  have  remained.  After  caring  for  his 
wounded,  he  struck  for  the  James  River,  below  the  city,  to  communi- 
cate with  Butler,  and  to  rest  his  men  and  horses,  as  well  as  to  get  food 
and  forage  for  them.  He  moved  first  between  the  Chickahominy  and 
the  James,  but  on  the  morning  of  the  i2th  he  was  stopped  by  batter- 
ies at  Mechanicsville.  He  then  turned  to  cross  to  the  north  side  of  the 
Chickahominy  by  Meadow  Bridge.  He  found  this  barred  and  the 
defeated  Confederate  cavalry,  again  reorganized,  occupying  the  opposite 
side.  The  panic  created  by  his  first  entrance  within  the  outer  works 
of  Richmond  having  subsided,  troops  were  sent  out  to  attack  his  rear. 
He  was  now  in  a  perilous  position  —  one  out  of  which  few  generals 
would  have  extricated  themselves. 

"The  defenses  of  Richmond  were  to  the  right,  well  manned  ;  the 
Chickahominy  was  to  the  left  with  no  bridge  remaining,  and  the  oppo- 
site bank  well  guarded.  Close  to  his  rear  was  a  force  from  Richmond. 
This  force  was  attacked  and  beaten  by  Wilson's  and  Gregg's  divisions, 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  163 

while  Sheridan  turned  to  the  left  with  the  remaining  division  and 
hastily  built  a  bridge  over  the  Chickahominy  under  the  fire  of  the 
enemy,  forced  a  crossing,  and  soon  dispersed  the  Confederates  he  found 
there.  The  enemy  was  held  back  from  the  stream  by  the  fire  of  the 
troops  not  engaged  in  bridge  building. 

"  On  the  i3th,  Sheridan  was  at  Bottom's  Bridge  and  over  on  the 
Chickahominy.  On  the  i4th  he  crossed  that  stream  and  on  that  day 
went  into  camp  on  the  James  River  at  HaxalPs  Landing.  He  at  once 
put  himself  into  communication  with  General  Butler  who  directed  all 
supplies  he  wanted  to  be  furnished. 

"Sheridan  had  left  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  at  Spottsylvania,  but 
did  not  know  where  either  it  or  Lee's  army  was  placed.  Great  cau- 
tion, therefore,  had  to  be  used  in  getting  back.  On  the  lyth,  after  rest- 
ing his  command  for  three  days,  he  started  on  his  return.  He  moved 
by  the  way  of  the  White  House.  The  bridge  over  the  Pamunkey  had 
been  burned  by  the  enemy,  but  a  new  one  was  speedily  improvised,  and 
the  cavalry  crossed  over  it.  On  the  22d  he  was  at  Ayletts  on  the 
Mattapony  where  he  learned  the  position  of  the  two  armies.  On  the 
24th  he  joined  us  on  the  march  from  North  Anna  to  Cold  Harbor,  in, 
the  vicinity  of  Chesterfield. 

"Sheridan  on  this  memorable  raid  passed  entirely  around  Lee's- 
army,  encountered  his  cavalry  in  four  engagements,  and  defeated  them 
all ;  recaptured  400  Union  prisoners,  and  killed  and  captured  many  of 
the  enemy  ;  destroyed  and  used  many  munitions  of  war  and  supplies  ;. 
destroyed  miles  of  railroad  and  telegraph,  and  freed  us  from  annoyance 
by  the  cavalry  of  the  enemy  for  more  than  two  weeks." 

Sheridan's  rejoining  the  army  on  the  North  Anna  was  the  signal 
for  renewed  cavalry  service.  The  North  Anna  country  was  a  differ- 
ent field  of  operations  from  any  the  army  had  been  in  during  that  series 
of  battles.  The  roads  were  wide  and  good,  and  the  country  well  culti- 
vated. But  we  had  neither  guides  nor  maps  to  tell  where  the  roads 
were,  or  where  they  led  to.  By  reconnoitering  Grant  was  enabled  to 
locate  those  in  the  vicinity  of  each  army  corps.  The  course  was  south, 
and  we  took  all  routes  leading  in  that  direction  which  would  not  separate 
the  army  too  widely.  Hancock  had  the  lead.  He  marched  easterly  to 
Guinney's  Station,  on  the  Fredericksburg  railroad,  thence  southerly,  to 
Bowling  Green  and  Milford,  and  was  at  Milford  on  the  night  of  the 
21  st  of  May.  Here  he  met  a  detachment  of  Pickett's  division,  which 
was  coming  from  Richmond  to  reinforce  Lee.  They  were  speedily 
driven  away,  and  several  hundred  captured.  Warren  followed  on  the 
morning  of  the  2ist,  and  reached  Guinney's  Station  that  night  without 


1 64  THE  LIFE  OF 

molestation.  Burnside  was  in  supporting  distance.  The  cavalry  was 
again  with  the  army,  and  played  an  important  part  in  the  Cold  Harbor 
movements.  These  required  that  there*  sGould  be  great  vigilance  exer- 
cised. Grant  threw  the  head  of  his  columns  to  the  south,  and  directed 
that  they  march  on  all  roads  so  leading  that  were  not  too  widely  sepa- 
rated. The  impression  was  given  by  our  movements  that  we  were 
designing  to  attack  the  left  flank  of  Lee's  army,  while  the  real  aim  was 
to  throw  our  own  forces  safely  across  the  James,  as  well  as  other  im- 
portant streams  that  intervened.  Their  presence  made  the  country 
very  defensible.  Grant  says  of  these  movements,  and  the  use  made  of 
his  cavalry,  that : 

"Wilson's  division  of  cavalry  was  brought  up  from  the  left  and 
moved  by  our  right  south  to  Little  River.  Here  he  managed  to  give 
the  impression  that  we  were  going  to  attack  the  left  flank  of  Lee's  army. 
Under  cover  of  night  our  right  wing  was  withdrawn  to  the  north  side 
of  the  river,  Lee  being  completely  deceived  by  Wilson's  feint.  On  the 
afternoon  of  the  26th  Sheridan  moved,  sending  Gregg's  and  Torbett's 
cavalry  to  Taylor's  and  Littlepage's  Ford,  toward  Hanover.  As  soon 
as  it  was  dark  both  cavalry  divisions  moved  quietly  to  Hanover  Ferry, 
leaving  small  guards  behind  to  keep  up  the  impression  that  crossings 
were  to  be  made.  We  were  enabled,  therefore,  to  turn  the  enemy's 
right  by  crossing  at  or  near  Hanover  town.  This  move  crossed  all 
three  streams  at  once,  and  left  us  still  where  we  could  draw  supplies.  It 
was  a  delicate  move  to  get  the  right  wing  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac 
from  its  position  south  of  the  North  Anna,  in  the  presence  of  the 
enemy." 

In  a  letter  of  instruction  to  Major-General  Meade,  of  this  date,  he 
says : 

General  Smith  will  start  up  the  south  bank  of  the  Pamunkey  at 
an  early  hour,  say  3A.M.  It  is  probable  that  the  enemy  being  aware 
of  Smith's  movement,  will  be  feeling  to  get  on  our  left  flank,  for  the 
purpose  of  cutting  him  off,  or  by  a  dash  to  crush  him  and  get  back 
before  we  are  aware  of  it.  Sheridan  ought  to  be  notified  to  watch  the 
enemy's  movements  well  out  toward  Cold  Harbor,  and  also  on  the 
Mechanicsville  road.  I  want  Sheridan  to  send  a  cavalry  force  of  at 
least  half  a  brigade,  at  5  A.  M.,  and  communicate  with  Smith  and  return 
with  him.  I  will  send  orders  for  Smith  by  the  messenger  you  send  to 
Sheridan  with  his  orders. 

U.  S.  G. 

On  the  3ist  Sheridan's  advance  was  near  the  Old  Cold  Harbor.  He 
found  it  intrenched  and  occupied  by  rebel  cavalry  and  infantry.  A 
hard  fight  ensued,  but  the  place  was  carried,  as  was  the  constant  custom 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  165 

of  our  troopers  at  this  date.  The  importance  of  Cold  Harbor  was 
understood.  The  Confederates  seemed  determined  that  we  should  not 
hold  it,  returning  to  the  attack'with  such  a  large  force  that  Sheridan  was 
about  withdrawing  without  making  any  further  effort  to  hold  it  against 
overwhelming  odds.  He  had  commenced  the  evacuation,  but  received 
orders  to  hold  the  place  at  all  hazards,  until  reinforcements  could  be 
sent  him.  To  receive  was  to  obey.  The  rebel  works  were  speedily 
faced  against  them,  and  his  men  were  placed  in  position  for  defense. 
Night  came  on,  however,  before  the  enemy  was  ready  to  renew  the 
assault.  Wright's  corps  was  ordered  directly  to  Cold  Harbor  that 
night,  marching  in  the  rear  of  our  army.  It  was  expected  to  arrive 
by  daylight,  but  was  not  there  till  9  A.  M.,  on  the  ist  of  June.  Sheri- 
dan had  gallantly  and  successfully  repelled  two  fierce  assaults.  Smith, 
who  was  expected  early,  did  not  arrive  till  the  afternoon  had  half 
waned.  Anderson,  of  Lee's  left,  moved  along  Warren's  front  and 
was  vigorously  attacked  on  the  flank,  but  he  succeeded  in  holding 
and  fortifying  the  position  he  had  gained.  At  six  that  evening  (June 
i,  '63),  Wright  and  Smith  charged  the  rebel  works,  broke  their 
lines,  driving  them  back,  and  capturing  over  seven  hundred  prisoners. 
Grant  expected  to  take  the  offensive  early  next  morning,  and  especially 
ordered  that  every  advantage  gained  was  to  be  pressed  to  the  utmost, 
in  order  to  drive  or  draw  Lee  out  of  his  cover.  Sheridan  having  rec- 
onnoitered  the  banks  of  the  Chickahominy  to  find  crossings  and  the  con- 
dition of  the  roads,  reported  favorably  upon  the  chances  of  crossing. 
During  the  night  Lee  moved  his  left  up  to  make  his  line  correspond 
with  ours.  The  Confederate  lines  extended  from  the  Tolopotomy  and 
New  Cold  Harbor  to  the  Chickahominy,  with  a  division  of  cavalry 
watching  our  right. 

An  assault  was  ordered  for  the  3d,  to  be  made  mainly  by  the  corps 
under  Hancock,  Wright,  and  Smith  ;  but  Warren  and  Burnside  were 
to  support  it  by  threatening  Lee's  left,  and  to  attack  with  earnestness  if 
a  favorable  opportunity  presented  itself.  Hancock  sent  Barlow  forward, 
and  after  some  very  severe  fighting  he  carried  a  position  outside  the 
enemy's  main  line.  Three  pieces  of  artillery  and  several  hundred 
prisoners  were  also  taken.  Gibbon  had  an  encounter  and  gained  much 
ground.  Wright's  corps  captured  the  outer  rifle-pits  in  its  front. 
Smith's  also  carried  the  outer  rifle-pits  in  its  front.  Warren  and  Burn- 
side  advanced  and  gained  ground  which  brought  the  whole  army  on  a 
line.  These  assaults  cost  us  heavily.  The  next  day  and  night  were 
spent  making  our  intrenchments  as  strong  as  Lee's. 


£    2  s 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


BREAKING  THE  CONFEDERATE  COM- 
MUNICATIONS. 

SHERIDAN'S    SECOND    GREAT    VIRGINIA   RAID  —  INTENDED    TO    CONNECT    WITH 

HUNTER—  OPERATIONS  IN  THE  SHENANDOAH  VALLEY — THE  REBEL  CAV- 
ALRY LEADERS  —  DESTROYING  THE  VIRGINIA  CENTRAL  RAILROAD  —  FIGHT 
AT  TREVILIAN  STATION — CONSTERNATION  IN  RICHMOND — RETURN  TO 
CITY  POINT  —  OPERATIONS  ABOUT  PETERSBURG — WILSON  AND  KAUTZ  SOUTH 
OF  RICHMOND  —  THE  BATTLE  OF  REAMS  STATION. 

JUST  before  the  completion  of  the  great  operations  by  which  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac  had  been  brought  to  the  north  bank  of  the  James, 
the  second  of  Sheridan's  great  raids  became  a  necessity.  Lee's  position 
was  now  so  near  Richmond  that  it  was  determined  by  the  next  flank 
movement  to  carry  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  across  and  south  of  the 
James  River.  This  movement  was  a  hazardous  one.  The  Chicka- 
hominyhad  to  be  crossed.  All  the  bridges  over  it  had  been  destroyed ; 
the  enemy  had  shorter  roads  and  better  ones  to  travel  on  to  confront 
us  on  crossing ;  more  than  fifty  miles  intervened  between  Grant  and 
Butler,  and  lastly,  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  had  to  be  got  out  of  a 
dangerous  position :  it  was  but  a  few  hundred  yards  from  Lee's  army 
at  the  widest  place.  Sheridan  was  sent  on  the  yth  of  June  with  two 
divisions  to  communicate  with  Hunter,  and  to  break  up  the  Virginia 
Central  railroad  and  the  James  River  Canal,  also  taking  instructions 
to  Hunter  to  come  back  with  him. 

The  canal  and  Central  road  and  the  region  penetrated  by  our  troopers 
on  this  raid,  were  of  vast  importance  to  the  enemy,  furnishing  and  car- 
rying a  large  per  cent,  of  all  the  supplies  they  required  for  the  Army  of 
Northern  Virginia  and  the  people  of  Richmond.  Before  Sheridan  got 
oft'  on  the  yth,  Hunter's  messengers  reported  his  advance  to  Staunton 
and  a  successful  engagement  with  the  enemy  near  that  place  on  the 
5th,  in  which  the  Confederate  commander,  General  W.  S.  Jones,  was 
killed. 


168  THE  LIFE  OF 

The  death  of  General  J.  E.  B.  Stuart  had  deprived  the  Confederate 
Army  of  Northern  Virginia  of  its  most  daring  field  commander.  The 
cavalry  under  "  Lee's  master'  of  horsef"-rras  Lieutenant-General  Wade 
Hampton,  with  that  pompous  affectation  of  feudalism  once  so  com- 
mon in  the  South,  was  often  called  —  consisted,  at  the  time  of  Sheri- 
dan's second  great  raid,  of  three  divisions,  and  seven  brigades.  Its 
roster  was  as  follows  : 

CAVALRY  CORPS. 
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL  WADE  HAMPTON,  Commanding. 

Major- General  Fitzhugh  Lee's  Division. 
Brigadier-General  W.  E.  Wickham's  Brigade. 
Brigadier-General  L.  L.  Lomax's  Brigade. 

Major-  General  M,  C.  Butler's  Division. 
Brigadier-General  John  Donovan's  Brigade. 
Brigadier-General  P.  M.  B.  Young's  Brigade. 
Brigadier-General  Thomas  L.  Rosser's  Brigade. 

Major- General   W.  H.  F.  Lee's  Division. 
Brigadier-General  Rufus  Barringer's  Brigade. 
Brigadier-General  J.  R.  Chamblis'  Brigade. 

Grant's  Memoirs  say  in  a  foot  note  that  this  corps  appears  to  have 
consisted  of  Hampton's,  Fitzhugh  Lee's,  and  W.  H.  F.  Bearing's  bri- 
gades. Obviously  it  was  inferior  to  the  mobile  and  effective  force  that 
Grant  and  Sheridan  had  made  of  the  Union  cavalry.  This  opposing 
disparity  of  numbers,  as  will  be  seen,  was  due  largely  to  the  longer  lines 
of  cavalry  defense,  scouting,  and  operations  generally,  which  the  posi- 
tion of  Lee's  army  was  then  and  thereafter  requiring.  Grant's  strate- 
getical  action  practically  comprehended  and  brought  about  a  vigorous 
concentration  of  Union  forces  in  Virginia.  The  Confederates'  was 
rapidly  being  reduced  to  but  two  objects  :  the  defense  of  Richmond, 
and  the  maintenance  of  their  lines  of  communication  and  fields  of 
supply.  The  first  compelled  him  to  keep  his  infantry  well  in  hand. 
He  was  allowed  but  twice  to  detach  efficient  forces  from  the  army, 
which  Grant's  unyielding  persistence  kept  constantly  engaged.  These 
occasions  were  in  the  direction  of  his  granary  —  the  Valley  of  the  Shen- 
andoah,  to  which  he  had  sent  Early,  the  North  Carolinian,  and  after- 
wards gave  him  the  force  of  Longstreet's  genius,  the  effect  of  which 
was  seen  in  the  very  narrow  escape  at  Cedar  Creek,  when  "  Sheridan 
saved  the  day."  The  second  object  obliged  him  to  extend  and  thus 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  169 

weaken  the  force  and  value  of  his  cavalry.  Sheridan's  skill  in  hand- 
ling the  cavalry,  and  Grant's  genius  in  directing,  may  be  clearly,  even 
luminously  traced,  from  this  point  onward.  The  opportunity  was  offered 
to  make  of  this  arm  of  the  service  something  far  greater  than  vedettes, 
pickets,  guards  for  roads,  messengers  to  commanders,  or  even  advance 
raiders  and  righting  "  rough  riders."  Sheridan  so  used  the  cavalry  as 
to  make  it,  in  effect,  a  swift-moving  army,  to  be  hurled  with  terrible 
force  in  a  given  direction,  and  then  moved  away  off  as  swiftly  as  it  came. 
Then  came  his  other  use  of  it  —  a  use  born  of  his  own  genius  in  war  : 
the  handling  of  it  as  a  screen  for  the  massing  of  infantry  bodies  behind 
it.  This  digression  is  necessary  to  illustrate  the  nature  of  Sheridan's 
future  movements.  He  was  assigned  to  the  breaking  up  of  commu- 
nications, then  to  the  occupation  of  supply  fields,  and  finally  to  the 
work  of  leading,  as  well  as  screening,  the  vast  forward  movement  which 
finally  ended  the  armed  rebellion. 

It  will  be  interesting  to  note  at  this  point  the  personalities  and  past 
and  present 'positions  of  some  of  the  rebel  cavalry  leaders,  for  they, 
like  our  own,  were  all  men  of  mark.  Contrary  to  our  own  rule,  at 
least  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  the  majority  of  the  rebel  commanders 
were  from  civil  life.  In  the  roster  given,  Brigadier-Generals  W.  H. 
F.  Lee,  P.  M.  B.  Young,  and  T.  L.  Rosser  are  the  only  West 
Pointers.  The  last  two  belonged  to  the  class  about  to  graduate  when 
the  Civil  War  began.  General  Young  has  since  served  several  terms 
in  Congress  as  a  Representative  from  Georgia.  Rufus  Barringer  is 
from  North  Carolina,  and  has  since  the  war  become  a  Republican.  He 
is,  or  was  recently,  a  judge  in  the  International  Court,  which  sits  in 
Egypt  under  the  Khedive's  rule.  General  W.  H.  F.  Lee  is  now  a 
farmer  on  part  of  the  Lee  estate,  within  a  short  distance  of  Washing- 
ton and  almost  in  sight  of  Arlington,  where  Sheridan  has  been  laid  at 
rest.  His  cousin,  Fitzhugh  Lee,  is  now  the  governor  of  Virginia.  The 
lieutenant-general  is  now  United  States  Senator  Wade  Hampton,  rep- 
resenting, with  one  of  his  former  major-generals  and  division  com- 
manders, Senator  M.  C.  Butler,  the  State  of  South  Carolina  in  the  Sen- 
ate Chamber  of  a  restored  Union.  General  Wickham,  who  is  now 
dead,  became,  some  years  after  the  war,  a  Republican  United  States 
Senator  from  Virginia. 

The  true  hero  of  the  Confederate  cavalry  was  unquestionably  James 
E.  B.  Stuart.  He  is  thus  described  by  a  Southern  writer,  as  he  re- 
ported in  1862  to  General  Johnston,  at  Williamsburg,  Virginia,  during 
the  first  Peninsula  Campaign  :  u  He  appeared  much  fatigued  and  over- 


1 7o  THE  LIFE  OF 

worked,  and  would  have  served  admirably  for  a  picture  of  Dick  Tur- 
pin  when  chased  by  officers  on  the  York  road.  His  horse  was  a 
splendid  black,  with  heavy  reins  and*bits,  cavalry  saddle  and  holsters  ; 
foam  stood  in  a  lather  upon  him,  and  he  was  mud-splashed  from  head 
to  foot.  The  officer  himself  bore  no  insignia  of  command.  A  com- 
mon black  felt  hat,  turned  down  in  front  and  up  behind  ;  a  heavy  black 
overcoat,  tightly  buttoned  ;  elegant  riding  boots  covering  the  thighs  ; 
a  handsome  sabre,  carelessly  slung  by  his  side,  and  a  heavy  pair  of 
Mexican  spurs,  that  jingled  and  rattled  on  the  pavement  as  he  dis- 
mounted, were  all  that  could  be  noticed  at  a  distance.  A  nearer  view, 
however,  showed  a  full-faced,  ruddy-complexioned  man,  with  close-cut 
hair,  and  apparently  some  thirty  years  old.  His  eyes  were  bright, 
beaming,  and  when  lighted  up,  piercing  and  full  of  deep  expression. 
A  stranger,  unaccustomed  to  the  war,  would  have  at  first  taken  him  to 
be  the  daring  chief  of  some  wild  predatory  band  ;  and  yet,  a  moment 
more  would  cause  a  change  of  opinion,  especially  on  hearing  him 
speak,  and  noticing  the  high-toned,  gentlemanly  bearing  he  displayed." 
General  Hunter  was  informed  by  way  of  Washington  and  the  val- 
ley that  Sheridan  was  on  the  way  to  meet  him.  The  following  letter 
was  sent  to  Hunter  : 

COLD  HARBOR,  VA.,  June  6,  1864. 
MAJOR-GENERAL  D.  HUNTER, 

Commanding  Department  West  Va. 

General  Sheridan  leaves  here  to-morrow  morning  with  instructions 
to  proceed  to  Charlottesville,  Va.,  and  to  commence  there  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Virginia  Central  railroad,  destroying  this  way  as  much  as 
possible.  The  complete  destruction  of  this  road  and  of  the  canal  on 
James  River  is  of  great  importance  to  us.  According  to  the  instruc- 
tions I  sent  to  General  Halleck  for  your  guidance,  you  were  to  pro- 
ceed to  Lynchburg  and  commence  there.  It  would  be  of  great  value 
to  us  to  get  possession  of  Lynchburg  for  a  single  day.  But  that  point 
is  of  so  much  importance  to  the  enemy  that  in  attempting  to  get  it  such 
resistance  may  be  met  as  to  prevent  your  getting  onto  the  road  or  canal 
at  all.  I  see,  on  looking  over  the  letter  to  General  Halleck  on  the 
subject  of  your  instructions,  that  it  rather  indicates  your  route  should  be 
from  Staunton  via  Charlottesville.  If  you  have  so  understood  it,  you 
will  be  doing  just  what  I  want.  The  direction  I  would  now  give  is, 
that  if  this  letter  reaches  you  in  the  valley  between  Staunton  and 
Lynchburg,  you  immediately  turn  east  by  the  most  practicable  road  until 
you  strike  the  Lynchburg  branch  of  the  Virginia  Central  road.  From 
thence  move  eastward  along  the  line  of  the  road,  destroying  it  com- 
pletely and  thoroughly,  until  you  join  General  Sheridan.  After  the 
work  laid  out  for  General  Sheridan  and  yourself  is  thoroughly  done, 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  171 

proceed  to  join  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  by  the  route  laid  out  in  Gen- 
eral Sheridan's  instructions. 

If  any  portion  of  your  force,  especially  your  cavalry,  is  not  needed 
in  your  department,  you  are  authorized  to  send  it  back. 

If  on  receipt  of  this  you  should  be  near  to  Lynchburg  and  deem  it 
practicable  to  reach  that  point,  you  will  exercise  your  judgment  about 
going  there. 

If  you  should  be  on  the  railroad  between  Charlottesville  and 
Lynchburg,  it  may  be  practicable  to  detach  a  cavalry  force  to  destroy 
the  canal.  Lose  no  opportunity  to  destroy  the  canal. 

U.  S.  GRANT,  Lieut. -General. 

This  comprehensive  plan  thus  briefly  outlined  was  never  laid  aside 
by  its  author,  though  it  took  more  months  of  hard  fighting  ere,  under 
Sheridan,  there  was  even  a  chance  to  execute  a  considerable  portion  of 
it.  Lynchburg  was  never  taken.  It  surrendered  with  or  after  the 
Army  of  Northern  Virginia. 

Crook  and  Averill  were  on  the  nth,  known  to  have  united  and  to  be 
moving  east.  This,  with  the  news  of  Hunter's  successful  Staunton 
engagement,  must  have  been  known  to  Lee  before  the  news  reached 
Grant.  Sheridan's  departure  with  two  divisions  of  cavalry  looked 
threatening  to  both  Lee's  communications  and  supplies.  The  rebel 
cavalry  was  sent  after  Sheridan,  and  Early  with  EwelPs  entire  corps 
was  pushed  to  the  Valley  of  Virginia.  Consternation  prevailed  again 
in  Richmond.  It  was  Sheridan's  mission  in  those  days  to  spread  alarm 
and  terror  within  the  rebel  capital.  Supplies  were  growing  scarce 
within  it,  and  the  outside  refugees  who  were  driven  in  by  fears  of  our 
raiders,  helped  to  consume  the  little  that  remained.  Grant's  object  was 
to  practically  put  Richmond  in  a  state  of  siege,  and  this  could  not  be 
accomplished  while  to  the  south  and  west  communications  remained 
unimpaired. 

This  second  great  raid  of  Sheridan  and  his  cavalry,  though  it 
failed  to  unite  with  Hunter  owing  to  Lee's  sending  Early  strong  rein- 
forcements, and  thus  compelling  "Black  Dave"  to  fall  back  up  the 
valley,  was  full  of  memorable  encounters,  chief  of  which  was  the  brilliant 
battle  at  Trevilian  Station.  Sheridan  started  on  the  yth  of  June  from 
Cold  Harbor.  He  crossed  the  river  and  pushed  at  once  to  reach  the 
station  and  commence  his  destruction  at  that  point.  On  the  night  of  the 
loth  he  bivouacked  some  six  miles  east  of  that  place,  while  Fitzhugh  Lee 
was  on  the  same  night  at  the  station  itself.  Wade  Hampton  was  but  a 
few  miles  away.  During  the  night  Hampton  ordered  an  advance  on 
Sheridan,  hoping,  no  doubt,  to  effect  a  surprise  and  thereby  badly  cripple 


172  THE  LIFE  OF 

him.  Sheridan,  however,  by  a  counter-move,  sent  Custer  on  a  rapid 
march  to  get  between  the  two  rebel  divisions  and  into  their  rear.  This 
Custer  successfully  executed.  At  daylight,  when  the  assault  was  made, 
the  enemy  found  himself  at  the  same  time  attacked  in  his  front  and 
rear.  His  troops  broke  in  considerable  confusion.  Sheridan  got  away 
with  five  hundred  prisoners,  and  sent  them  to  City  Point.  On  the  same 
day  Sheridan  moved  into  Trevilian  Station,  and  the  following  day  pro- 
ceeded to  tear  up  the  road,  east  and  west.  There  was  considerable  fight- 
ing during  the  whole  of  the  day,  but  the  work  of  destruction  went  on. 
At  night  the  enemy  had  possession  of  the  crossing  which  Sheridan  had 
proposed  to  take  to  go  north  when  he  left  Trevilian.  Sheridan  learned, 
however,  from  some  of  the  prisoners  he  had  captured,  that  General 
Hunter  was  near  Lynchburg,  and  therefore  there  was  no  use  of  his 
going  on  to  Charlottesville  to  meet  him. 

On  the  night  of  June  i2th,  Sheridan  started  back,  moving  north 
and  east.  He  reached  the  White  House  on  the  2ist,  after  a  consider- 
able detour,  and  found  an  abundance  of  forage  and  supplies  for  both 
horses  and  men.  The  James  River  was  crossed  on  the  26th,  Sheridan 
transferring  all  supplies,  etc.,  in  breaking  up  the  depot,  to  the  south 
side  of  the  river. 

While  Sheridan  was  absent  on  this  raid  the  transfer  of  the  Army 
of  the  Potomac  had  been  effected.  Soon  after  dark  on  the  7th,  some 
of  our  cavalry  at  Long  Bridge  also  effected  a  crossing  of  the  Chicka- 
hominy,  by  wading  through  the  swampy  water  and  mud,  waist  deep. 
They  then  drove  away  the  Confederate  pickets.  A  pontoon  bridge  was 
speedily  thrown  across.  Warren's  corps  followed  the  cavalry,  and  on 
the  morning  of  the  i3th  Hancock  followed  Warren.  Burnside  took 
the  road  to  Jones'  Bridge,  followed  by  Wright.  Ferrero,  with  the 
wagon  train,  moved  by  Window  Shades  and  Cole's  Ferry,  our  rear 
being  covered  by  Wilson's  cavalry.  Warren  on  crossing,  moved  out 
and  joined  Sheridan's  cavalry  in  holding  the  roads  from  Richmond 
while  the  army  passed.  But  no  attempt  to  oppose  the  crossing  was 
made.  The  advance  of  the  army  reached  the  James  River  on  the  I4th 
of  June.  The  same  day  pontoon  bridges  were  laid.  Next  day  Grant 
visited  Butler  at  Bermuda  Hundred  for  the  purpose  of  directing  a  move- 
ment against  Petersburg  while  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  crossing 
the  James.  Butler  gave  Smith  about  six  thousand  reinforcements, 
including  some  twenty-five  hundred  cavalry  under  Kautz,  and  about 
thirty-five  hundred  colored  infantry  under  Hinks. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  173 

Smith  in  his  advance  encountered  a  rebel  force  intrenched  between 
City  Point  and  their  lines  outside  of  Petersburg.  This  position  he 
carried.  Hancock  was  sent  across  to  reinforce  Smith  at  Petersburg. 
He  arrived  in  front  of  the  lines  early  on  the  i5th  and  spent  the  day 
reconnoitering  apparently  empty  works,  consisting  of  redans  occupy- 
ing commanding  positions,  with  rifle-pits  connecting  them.  The 
assault  was  made  with  the  colored  troops  and  with  success.  By  nine 
that  night,  he  was  in  possession  of  five  of  these  redans  and  the  rifle-pits 
with  them.  Hancock  came  up  and  relieved  Smith's  men,  who  were  in 
the  trenches.  On  the  i6th,  Hancock  was  in  command  and  captured 
another  redan. 

Meade  arrived,  and  during  the  day  carried  three  more  redans.  All 
the  guns  and  men  in  these  redans  fell  into  our  hands.  Beauregard, 
who  up  to  this  time  had  commanded  south  of  Richmond,  had  received 
no  reinforcements  though  calling  strongly  for  them,  believing  we  were 
seeking  Petersburg.  On  the  ryth,  the  fighting  was  very  severe.  That 
night  Beauregard  fell  back  to  a  new  line  and  commenced  fortifying  it. 
On  the  1 8th  our  troops  took  the  position  he  had  vacated.  The  armies 
remained  quiet  now  until  the  22d,  when  General  Meade  ordered  an 
advance  towards  the  Weldon  railroad. 

After  a  sharp  battle  the  Union  soldiers  were  withdrawn,  and  to  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac  was  given  the  investment  of  Petersburg,  while 
the  Army  of  the  James  held  Bermuda  Hundred. 

The  balance  of  the  cavalry  corps  was  not  idle  while  these  operations 
were  in  progress.  During  Sheridan's  twenty-days  absence  from  head- 
quarters, General  Meade  sent  General  James  H.  Wilson  with  his 
division,  aided  by  General  Kautz'  cavalry,  on  a  raid  to  destroy  the 
Weldon  and  Southside  railroads.  His  position,  however,  soon  grew  pre- 
carious, and  on  the  zyth,  the  day  after  his  arrival  at  City  Point,  Sheri- 
dan was  in  the  saddle  again,  crossing  the  river  to  demonstrate  in  aid  of 
Wilson's  retreat.  The  united  commands  burned  Reams  Station  and 
all  the  buildings,  ten  miles  south  of  Petersburg,  and  were  able  to  tear 
up  the  track  for  several  miles.  They  then  pushed  over  to  the  South- 
side  railroad  at  Ford's  Station,  five  miles  further  south  of  Petersburg. 
They  destroyed  it,  and  the  road  also  to  Nottoway  Station,  twenty-two 
miles  south.  At  Nottoway  a  vigorous  hand-to-hand  encounter  was 
had  with  a  brigade  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  troops,  commanded 
by  Fitzhugh  Lee  in  person.  The  enemy  was  defeated  and  severely 
punished.  General  Kautz  then  pushed  on  to  Burke's  Station,  the 
junction  of  the  Southside  with  the  Danville  road.  It  was  at  this  place, 


i74  GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

nine  months  later,  that  General  Grant  sent  in  his  first  demand  for  Lee's 
surrender.  Kautz  destroyed  a  large  section  of  both  roads,  and  then 
pushed  on  to  Meherrin  Station  and  jVirfed  Wilson  there.  They  then 
destroyed  the  road  to  Staunton  River.  But  the  country  was  in  arms 
against  the  Union  raiders.  Lee  hurried  his  cavalry  against  them,  and  the 
mounted  farmers  joined  in  the  hurry.  Our  cavalry  was  forced  to  turn 
back.  They  expected  to  fight  their  way  to  Reams  Station,  on  the 
Weldon.  This,  they  believed,  would  be  in  our  possession.  Instead, 
they  encountered  Hampton  with  his  cavalry,  supported  by  two  infantry 
divisions  under  Mahone  and  Finnegas,  the  Irish-American  soldiers  of 
the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia. 

Our  cavalry  was  compelled  to  accept  battle  against  these  great  odds 
of  at  leas.t  four  to  one,  and  were  severely  defeated,  reaching  our  lines 
below  Petersburg  in  bad  condition.  Sheridan  crossed  the  river  on  the 
27th  to  make  a  diversion  in  favor  of  our  hardly  pressed  cavalry.  This 
movement  facilitated  their  retreat  and  prevented  the  rebel  pursuit  being 
as  active.  It  was  the  only  defeat  of  any  portion  of  our  Potomac  cavalry 
after  Sheridan  assumed  command. 

It  is  impossible  to  particularize  details.  The  cavalry  movements 
thus  inaugurated  under  Sheridan  by  Grant's  orders  were  of  so  gigantic 
and  audacious  a  character  as  to  give  a  new  conception  of  such  warfare. 
The  dash,  vigor,  boldness,  and  audacity  displayed  at  all  times  startled 
the  Confederate  commanders.  They  recognized  that  this  was  a  "  new 
departure,"  and  the  abler  ones  saw  that  the  end  was  rapidly  approach- 
ing. It  would  require  the  pen  of  a  poet  and  the  brush  of  an  artist  com- 
bined, dipped  in  the  sunshine,  or  made  red  with  the  blazonry  of  battle, 
to  describe  the  tone,  color,  movement,  of  these  events.  It  is  simply 
impossible.  It  is  only  glorious  to  have  lived  and  been  of  them. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


FROM    CORPS    TO    DEPARTMENT 
COMMANDER. 

THE  SHENANDOAH  VALLEY  —  HUNTER  AND  EARLY  —  THE  VALLEY'S  IMPORT- 
ANCE TO  THE  VIRGINIA  CONFEDERATES — CAVALRY  RAIDS  ON  RAILROADS  — 
WASHINGTON  IN  DANGER  —  THE  MINE  EXPLOSION  —  HOW  SHERIDAN  BECAME 
A  DEPARTMENT  COMMANDER  —  MAKER  OF  HIS  OWN  CAREER  —  LIKENESS 
TO  NAPOLEON. 


MAJOR- 

G  E  N  ER AL 

DAVID  HUN- 
TER was  m 
the  Valley  of 
Virginia 
early  in  that 
fateful  mid- 
summer of 
1864.  Sigel 
had  preceded 
him.  "Black 
Dave,"  as 
Hunter  was 
called  in  the 
old  army, 
took  the  of- 
fensive. He 
f  o  u  g  h  t  at 
Piedmont  in 
the  Shenan- 


GEN.  AUGUST  V.  KAUTZ, 


A   DISTINGUISHED  GERMAN-AMERICAN   OFFICER  —  COMMANDER   OF   THE 
CAVALRY   OF    THE   ARMY  OF   THE   JAMES    UNDER   SHERIDAN. 


doah   Valley 
on  the  5th  of 

June,  defeating  the  rebels.  On  the  8th  he  effected  a  junction  at  Staunton 
with  Generals  Crook  and  Averill,  the  latter  in  command  of  a  cavalry  divis- 
ion, and  the  former  with  a  large  force  of  West  Virginia  infantry.  Hunter 


176  THE  LIFE  OF 

moved  directly  on  Lynchburg  by  way  of  Lexington,  which  place  he 
reached  May  i6th.  His  main  difficulty  was  from  inability  to  transport 
ordnance  stores  sufficient  for  the  vigorous  operations  he  was  striving  to 
execute.  His  movements  did  great  damage,  destroying  grain,  forage, 
food,  growing  crops,  and  otherwise  making  waste  the  granary  of  Lee's 
army.  The  fear  of  losing  Lynchburg  made  Lee  send  "  old  "  Jubal  A. 
Early  with  his  corps  to  oppose  Hunter.  He  arrived  first  at  Lynchburg 
—  a  most  important  point  on  the  railroad  lines  extending  south  and 
southwest  from  Virginia — before  Hunter,  who,  after  brisk  skirmishing 
on  the  1 7th  and  i8th  of  June,  was  compelled  to  retire  for  the  want  of 
ammunition,  and  to  reach  the  Ohio  River  by  a  circuitous  route  through 
the  mountainous  valleys  of  the  Gauley  and  Kanawha  rivers  in  West 
Virginia.  On  reaching  the  Ohio  his  army  was  transported  to  Harper's 
Ferry,  by  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad.  As  a  consequence  of  this 
retreat  Early  occupied  the  valley  and  Washington  was  uncovered.  He 
moved  at  once  on  the  national  capital,  arriving  before  it  on  the  nth 
of  July.  General  Lew  Wallace  at  Baltimore,  in  Hunter's  enforced 
absence,  commanded  his  department.  Wallace's  force  was  small,  and 
generally  raw  troops.  Washington  had  a  very  small  effective  garrison. 
There  was  a  considerable  body  of  convalescents  who  were  ordered  into 
the  intrenchments.  The  department  clerks  and  the  quartermaster's 
employes  had  been  organized  as  regiments,  and  were  also  put  under 
arms.  Brigadier-General  Halbert  A.  Paine,  of  Wisconsin,  afterward 
in  Congress,  and  who  is  now  a  practicing  lawyer  at  the  Federal  city, 
was  placed  in  command  of  the  defenses.  General  Paine  had  com- 
manded the  colored  division  in  the  famous  attack  upon  the  rebel  works 
at  Port  Hudson.  He  lost  a  leg  there,  and  was  on  invalid  duty  at  the 
time  of  these  occurrences. 

Wallace  had  pushed  forward  from  Baltimore  to  the  Monocacy  with 
such  force  as  he  could  gather.  He  was  soon  joined  by  General  Rick- 
etts'  division  of  the  Sixth  Army  Corps,  which  Meade  had  already 
ordered  to  Baltimore  by  Grant's  orders.  They  arrived  on  the  8th  of 
July.  Ricketts  at  once  followed  Wallace,  and  together  they  gave  bat- 
tle to  Early.  Though  defeated,  this  fight  delayed  his  progress  for  one 
day,  enabling  the  balance  of  the  Sixth  Corps  which  had  already  been 
sent  forward  by  Grant,  to  reach  Washington  on  the  night  of  the  nth 
instant.  It  has  been  reported,  and  never  denied,  that  Early  could  have 
easily  marched  into  the  city  on  the  afternoon  of  the  nth.  Brecken- 
ridge,  at  a  council  held  in  the  senior  Frank  Blair's  residence  at  Silver 
Springs,  Maryland,  six  miles  from  Washington,  urged  an  immediate 
forward  movement. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN,  177 

Among  the  troops  in  the  defenses  before  Early  were  some  six  com- 
panies of  Vermont  cavalry  —  part  of  Sheridan's  troopers,  who  were  at 
the  cavalry  depot  selecting  horses  to  remount  their  regiment.  They 
were  under  command  of  Major  Chamberlain.  Immediately  on  arrival 
at  our  meagrely  manned  works,  they  were  ordered  out  in  front  of  them 
as  skirmishers.  That  these  men  were  veterans  every  rebel  understood. 
Early,  with  information  from  inside  sympathizers  that  the  Sixth  Corps 
was  expected  to  relieve  the  endangered  city,  could  not  be  persuaded  to 
believe  otherwise  than  that  the  Vermont  cavalrymen  were  part  of 
Wright's  corps,  and  withheld  his  attack  till  morning,  when  he  found 
it  was  too  late.  Preparations  had  been  made  within  the  Federal  city 
for  disaster.  The  more  important  public  archives  and  treasures  were 
all  ready  for  removal  to,  if  not  on  board  our  war  vessels  in  the  Poto- 
mac. The  public  buildings  and  Capitol  would  have  been  blown  up  if 
necessary.  This,  at  least,  is  generally  understood.  The  rebel  sympa- 
thizers within  our  lines  were  known  to  have  prepared  food,  etc.,  for 
their  friends,  and  some  of  the  more  indiscreet  paid  the  penalty  of  show- 
ing their  feelings  by  imprisonment  in  the  "  Old  Capitol"  jail. 

In  the  West  there  had  been  some  disasters  to  the  Union  cause. 
Sherman  was  pounding  away  in  the  Atlanta  campaign.  Then  came 
the  mine  disaster  at  Petersburg,  which  Grant  in  his  Memoirs  deliber- 
ately sets  down  to  the  discredit  of  General  Burnside.  The  famous- 
mine  was  ready  for  explosion  on  the  23d  of  July,  and  Grant  writes  that 
he  designed  that  event  as  the  occasion,  if  possible,  for  carrying  Peters- 
burg. To  that  end  he  wrote:  "It  was  the  object,  therefore,  to  get 
as  many  of  Lee's  troops  away  from  the  south  side  of  the  James  River 
as  possible.  Accordingly,  on  the  26th,  we  commenced  a  movement  with 
Hancock's  corps  and  Sheridan's  cavalry  to  the  north  side,  by  way  of 
Deep  Bottom,  where  Butler  had  a  pontoon  bridge  laid.  The  plan  was 
to  let  the  cavalry  cut  loose,  and  joining  with  the  cavalry  of  the  Army 
of  the  James,  General  Kautz,  get  by  Lee's  lines  and  destroy  as  much 
as  they  could  of  the  Virginia  Central  railroad,  while,  in  the  meantime, 
the  infantry  was  to  move  out  so  as  to  protect  their  rear,  and  cover  their 
retreat  back  when  they  got  through  with  their  work. 

"  We  were  successful  in  drawing  the  enemy's  troops  to  the  north 
side  of  the  James,  as  I  expected.  The  morning  of  the  3oth  was  fixed 
for  the  explosion  of  the  mine.  All  was  ready  by  the  3Oth,  and  on  the 
29th  Hancock  and  Sheridan  were  brought  back  near  the  James  River 
with  their  troops." 
13 


i73  THE  LIFE  OF 

"Under  cover  of  the  night  they  started  to  recross  the  bridge  at 
Deep  Bottom,  and  to  march  directly  for  that  part  of  our  lines  in  front 
of  the  mine.  Warren  was  to  hold  his"  line  of  intrenchments  on  Burn- 
side's  right,  while  Ord,  now  commanding  the  Eighteenth  Corps,  under 
Meade,  was  to  form  in  the  rear  of  Burnside,  to  support  him  when  he 
went  in.  Everybody  was  ordered  to  charge  as  soon  as  the  mine  had 
been  sprung,  except  Burnside's  troops,  who  were  to  push  to  the  top 
of  the  hill,  supported  by  Ord  and  Warren. 

"  There  was  some  delay  about  the  explosion,  and  it  did  not  go  off 
until  5  A.  M.,  but  it  was  very  successful,  making  a  crater  twenty  feet 
deep,  and  something  like  a  hundred  feet  in  length." 

The  heavy  cannonading  Grant  planned,  began  immediately.  Troops 
marched  into  the  crater,  but  there  was  no  one  to  give  them  proper  direc- 
tions. The  Confederates  were  seen  flying  in  all  directions,  as  rumors 
of  the  town  being  undermined  were  in  circulation.  So  great  was  their 
confusion,  that  it  was  half  an  hour  "  before  musketry  fire  was  opened 
on  our  men."  Grant  says  : 

t;The  effort  was  a  stupendous  failure.  It  cost  us  about  four  thou- 
sand men,  mostly,  however,  captured  ;  and  all  due  to  inefficiency  on 
the  part  of  the  corps  commander,  and  of  the  division  commander  who 
was  sent  to  lead  the  assault." 

Next  day,  however,  finding  that  the  portion  of  Lee's  army  which 
had  been  drawn  north  of  the  James  was  still  there,  Grant  immediately 
gave  orders  to  have  the  cavalry  with  infantry  supports  sent  out  under 
Sheridan  to  destroy,  before  Lee's  troops  could  get  back,  from  fifteen  to 
twenty  miles  of  the  Weldon  railroad,  to  the  south  of  Richmond.  This 
was  successfully  accomplished  and  without  any  serious  fighting.  It  was 
the  last  of  Sheridan's  raids  in  that  region.  The  time  had  come  for  the 
young  soldier  to  take  on  larger  responsibilities  and  to  practically  as- 
sume the  independent  command  of  a  separate  army.  The  ' '  old  women  " 
at  Washington  (among  whom  Mr.  Lincoln  was  not,  it  will  be  clearly 
seen,  to  be  counted)  were  afraid  to  trust  this  young  soldier.  They 
were  always  in  dread  of  Washington  and  its  safety.  This  fear  made 
"  Old  Brains  "  a  trembling  strategist,  and  the  Carnot  of  our  conflict, 
Secretary  Stanton,  a  constant  hinderer  of  regional  success.  The  same 
fear  had  infected  with  ambition  or  dread,  the  councils  or  decisions  of  every 
soldier  who  had  risen  to  the  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 
Grant  had  sagaciously  separated  himself  from  direct  relations  with 
Washington  influence.  He  soon  found  that  his  instructions  were  trans- 
lated in  the  War  Department  adversely  to  the  views  he  held.  Pursuit 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 


179 


was  out  of 
the  range 
where  the 
capital  was 
concerned. 
When  the 
failure  at 
Petersburg 
made  it  self- 
evident  that 
a  longer 
period  re- 
mained of 
patient 
hammering 
against  Lee 
and  the 
chief  Con- 
f edera  t  e 
forces  and 
govern- 
mentinand 
around 
Richmond, 
Grant  saw 
clearly  that 
this  delay, 
to  be  ser- 
viceable, 
must  be 

compensated  for  in  other  and  more  important  directions.     The  fall  of 
Atlanta  was  one  of  these  compensations. 

But  in  Virginia  other  action  was  imperative.  General  Wright, 
with  the  Sixth  and  a  portion  of  the  Ninth  Corps,  had  failed  in  a  vigor- 
ous pursuit  of  Early,  who,  however,  supposed  for  some  days  that  he 
was  being  actively  followed  southward.  Since  Grant's  advent  the 
Confederates  had  begun  to  expect  the  untiring  activity  which  was  so  soon 
to  have  its  disastrous  effect  on  their  morale.  Early  turned  and  assumed 
the  offensive  on  finding  that  Wright  had  a  severe  attack  of  Washington 
paralysis.  The  Confederate  general  returned  to  Winchester,  where 
Crook  was  stationed  with  a  small  force,  and  drove  him  out.  He  then 


GEN.  DAVID  McM.  GREGG, 

A    FAMOUS    DIVISION    COMMANDER    UNDER    SHERIDAN. 


i8o  THE  LIFE  OF 

pushed  north  until  he  had  reached  the  Potomac  ;  then  he  sent  McCaus- 
land  across  to  Chambersburg,  Pennsylvania,  to  destroy  that  town.  It 
was  entirely  defenseless,  with  no  garrison  or  fortifications,  but  it  was 
burned  by  Early's  orders,  on  the  3Oth  of  July.  Grant  says:  ';I  now 
recalled  the  troops  that  I  had  sent  to  destroy  the  railroad  and  sent  them 
to  Washington  City.  After  burning  Chambersburg  McCausland  re- 
treated, pursued  by  our  cavalry,  toward  Cumberland./'  Here  he  was 
met  and  defeated  by  General  Kelley,  and  driven  into  Virginia. 

An  interesting  contest  now  occurred,  as  it  were,  "  behind  the  scenes." 
The  importance  of  the  Shenandoah  Valley  as  a  base  of  supplies  was 
well  understood  by  the  Virginia  Confederates.  Grant  desired  to  destroy 
this,  and  utterly.  As  Sheridan  himself  said  afterward,  in  a  dispatch 
announcing  its  accomplishment,  that  it  was  necessary  to  lay  the  valley 
so  bare  "that  a  crow  flying  over  it  must  carry  its  rations."  Pre- 
viously to  the  Petersburg  affair,  Grant  had  asked  for  the  assignment  of 
Major-General  Sheridan  to  the  command  of  Hunter's  department.  Mr. 
Stanton  was  understood  to  object  on  account  of  the  age  of  the  gallant 
soldier  rendering  him  unfit  for  so  important  a  command.  It  is  prob- 
able that  the  real  reason  was  that  Sheridan  would  always  prefer  Grant's 
policy  to  that  of  Stanton.  On  the  ist  of  August,  Grant  having  settled 
that  a  waiting  policy  was  necessary  in  front  of  Richmond,  ordered  re- 
inforcements to  Washington  for  its  direct  protection  and  forwarded  to 
the  Cabinet  general  the  following  : 

MAJOR-GENERAL  HALLECK  : 

I  am  sending  General  Sheridan  for  temporary  duty,  whilst  the 
enemy  is  being  expelled  from  the  border.  Unless  General  Hunter  is 
in  the  field  in  person,  I  want  Sheridan  put  in  command  of  all  the 
troops  in  the  field,  with  instructions  to  put  himself  south  of  the  enemy 
and  follow  him  to  the  death.  Wherever  the  enemy  goes,  there  let  our 
troops  go  also.  Once  started  up  the  valley,  they  ought  to  be  followed 
until  we  get  into  possession  of  the  Virginia  Central  railroad.  If  Gen- 
eral Hunter  is  in  the  field,  give  Sheridan  direct  command  of  the  Sixth 
Corps  and  the  cavalry  division.  All  the  cavalry  will  reach  Washing- 
ton in  the  course  of  to-morrow.  U.  S.  GRANT. 

President  Lincoln,  on  reading  this,  sent  Grant  a  remarkable  dis- 
patch, which  reads  as  follows  : 

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL  GRANT  : 

I  have  seen  your  dispatch  in  which  you  say,  I  want  Sheridan  put 
in  command  of  all  the  troops  in  the  field,  with  instructions  to  put  him- 
self south  of  the  enemy,  and  follow  him  to  the  death,  etc.  This,  I 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 


think,  is  exactly  right,  as  to  how  our  forces  should  move.  But  please 
look  over  the  dispatches  you  may  have  received  from  here,  even  since 
you  made  that  order,  and  discover  if  you  can,  that  there  is  any  idea  in 
the  head  of  any  one  here,  of  putting  our  army  south  of  the  enemy,  or 
of  following  him  to  the  death,  in  any  direction.  I  repeat  to  you  it  will 
neither  be  done  nor  attempted  unless  you  watch  it  every  day,  and  hour, 
and  force  it.  A.  LINCOLN. 

Grant's  reply  was  emphatic  and  significant:  "I  start  for  Washing- 
ton in  two  hours." 

Sheridan  and  the  first  two  divisions  of  his  cavalry  corps  were 
already  on  the  way.  Grant  went  on  to  the  Monocacy  where  Hunter's 
army  was  encamped,  not  stopping  at  Washington.  Hunter  did  not 
know  where  to  find  the  enemy.  He  had  been  so  embarrassed  by  orders 

from  the  cap- 

ital,  moving 
him  right  and 
left,  that  he 
ha  d  lost  all 
direct  traces  of 
Early.  Grant 
at  once  deter- 
mined to  find 
him,  and 
pushed  f  o  r 
Halltown, 
four  miles 
above  Har- 
per's Ferry, 
quite  sure  that 
the  foe  would 
soon  be  found 
in  front  of  our 
troops  moving 
south.  In- 
structions 
were  then 
w  rl  1 1  en  to 
General  Hun- 
ter, in  which 
it  was  sug-  GEN-  ALFRED  N.  DUFFIE, 

^          ,         i          ,  i         ,  A   DISTINGUISHED   FRENCH   CAVALRY  OFFICER,   WHO   PERFORMED  GALLANT 

te  SERVICE  WITH    THE   UNION   ARMY. 


1 82  THE  LIFE  OF 

department  headquarters  be  established,  of  which  he  assume  com- 
mand, leaving  Sheridan  in  the  field  with  the  fighting  force.  The 
latter  was  then  in  Washington.  To  this  ^Hunter  replied  that  General 
Halleck  seemed  to  doubt  his  fitness,  and  he  had  better  be  relieved  alto- 
gether. This  was  done  by  Grant,  and  Sheridan  assigned  to  the  com- 
mand. The  latter  was  ordered  by  telegraph  to  go  at  once  to  the 
Monocacy.  He  arrived  on  a  special  train,  upon  the  4th  of  August,  but 
the  troops  were  all  off  before  his  appearance.  Grant  met  him  at  the 
little  station,  told  what  had  been  done,  and  what  he  was  to  do,  giving 
him  at  the  same  time  the  instructions  already  prepared  for  Hunter. 
He  at  once  assumed  his  new  command  in  a  general  order  to  his  troops. 
Sheridan's  first  grand  opportunity  had  come.  He  was  but  thirty-two 
years  old,  and  in  command  of  30,000  men,  the  flower  of  our  eastern 
army.  There  were  eight  thousand  of  the  finest  cavalry  in  the  world, 
under  such  commanders  as  Averill,  Torbett,  D.  McM.  Gregg,  Custer, 
Deven,  Wesley  Merritt,  H.  E.  Davies,  and  J.  Irvin  Gregg.  Against 
him  was  Early,  with  an  equal  force,  including  Stonewall  Jackson's 
veterans,  Rosser's  and  Wickham's  rebel  cavalry.  The  valley  was  a 
familiar  battle-field  to  their  forces,  and  eminently  adapted  also  to  the 
defensive-offensive  operations  which  distinguished  the  entire  history  of 
Lee's  struggle  in  Virginia. 

The  brilliant  commander  already  held  the  expectant  North  by  its 
eager  ears.  The  attention  of  the  country  was  truly  turned  upon  the 
new  star  in  our  military  firmament.  It  was  no  nebulous  flicker  that 
was  seen  ;  no  mere  asteroid  dimly  gleaming  on  clouded  sky  ;  but  a  full- 
orbed  planet  that  glowed  steadily  through  all  the  lurid  storms  that  o'er- 
cast  our  summer  horizon.  Surely  the  large  place  he  now  filled  was 
well  won,  for  Sheridan  had  no  adventitious  aids  in  his  upward  career. 
The  lucky  incident  of  Granger's  suggesting  to  Captain  Alger  Sheridan's 
appointment  as  colonel  of  the  Second  Michigan  Cavalry,  and  the  for- 
tunate circumstance  of  Governor  Blair's  presence  at  Pittsburg  Landing, 
cannot  be  esteemed  as  other  than  the  incidents  which  sometimes  favors 
modest  merit.  A  luckier  and  more  personal  fact  that  greatly  shaped 
the  outset  of  Sheridan's  superb  career,  is  seen  in  that  dislike  of  volun- 
teer officers  which  Halleck  always  exhibited,  and  which  always  made 
him  push  forward  the  West  Pointers  and  trained  men  of  the  regular 
army,  no  matter  how  young  they  were  or  how  little  actual  service  they 
had  seen.  In  Sheridan's  case  it  was  an  event  of  importance,  for  the 
day  after  his  appointment  as  colonel,  he  was  in  the  saddle  and  at  the 
front,  commanding  more  than  his  own  regiment,  and  having  under 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  183 

Halleck's  orders,  a  splendid  opportunity  of  beginning  a  soldier's  laiger 
life.  How  well  he  availed  himself  of  this  all  the  world  knows.  It  is 
part  of  its  current  history.  But  even  then,  as  always  thereafter,  it  was 
Sheridan's  unaided  genius  that  carved  for  him  name  and  fame.  When 
he  reached  Grant,  the  golden  gates  of  opportunity  were  held  back  so 
firmly  by  that  man  and  soldier  of  calmest  equipoise,  patience,  and  cour- 
ageous trust,  that  his  gallant  and  daring  lieutenant  was  always  able  to 
dash  through  them  unimpeded. 

General  Sheridan  in  August,  1864,  was,  though  small  in  stature,  a 
very  model  for  a  soldier.  He  was  molded  as  if  in  bronze.  Not  an  ounce 
of  superfluous  flesh  was  to  be  seen  on  that  energetic  frame.  He  bore  in 
every  line  and  motion  the  outward  evidence  of  concentrated  energy, 
while  his  face  and  head  were  the  picture  of  vitalized  mental  power. 
Lincoln  had  looked  into  the  little  trooper's  brain,  and  with  that  deep, 
penetrative,  patient  glance  of  his,  had  fathomed  its  capacity,  and  grown 
confident  of  its  ability  to  succeed.  The  likeness  in  mold  and  line 
to  Napoleon  Bonaparte  at  Sheridan's  age,  was  being  generally  com- 
mented upon.  Stanton  came  to  observe  it  later  ;  and  after  Sheridan's 
historic  ride  a  little  later,  it  is  recorded  that  Mr.  Stanton  had  in  his  room, 
on  the  marble  mantel,  a  little  book  of  about  five  hundred  pages, 
which  contained,  as  a  frontispiece,  a  likeness  of  Napoleon  ;  and,  says  a 
writer  in  the  Washington  Star,  he  took  it,  and,  turning  to  the  frontis- 
piece, handed  it  to  the  President,  saying  that  there  was  a  resemblance 
about  the  forehead  and  bust.  Sometime  prior  to  this,  when  our  armies 
were  being  slaughtered  by  piecemeal,  in  Virginia,  Mr.  Stanton  had 
received  a  letter  from  some  prominent  person  calling  his  attention  to 
a  saying  of  Napoleon's  that  one  commander  for  an  army  was  better  than 
two  armies  with  independent  commanders.  "He  then  told  me  to  get 
him  this  book  on  Napoleon  from  the  library.  They  talked  for  sometime 
about  General  Sheridan,  who  had,  several  days  before  his  Cedar  Creek 
battle,  defeated  Early,  and  I  heard  Mr.  Stanton  then  say  to  the  Presi- 
dent that  Grant  and  Sheridan  would  end  the  war  very  soon  with  such 
fighting."  It  was  after  and  in  connection  with  this  saying  of  Napoleon's, 
that  the  President  is  reported  as  having  said  that  one  bad  general  was 
better  than  two  good  ones. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


IN  THE  SHENANDOAH  VALLEY. 

SHERIDAN  AS  DEPARTMENT  COMMANDER  —  HIS  FIRST  CHANCE  TO  DEMONSTRATE 
HIS  ABILITY  TO  COMMAND  —  EARLY  IS  REINFORCED  BY  GORDON  AND  LOMAX  — 
THE  APPEARANCE  OF  THE  REBEL  COMMANDER — THE  ARMY  ROSTER  —  SHER- 
IDAN'S  PREPARATIONS  —  ATTACK  AND  PURSUIT — -THE  STORY  OF  THE  LOYAL 
QUAKERESS  —  HOW  HE  GOT  INTELLIGENCE  —  THE  BATTLE  OF  WINCHESTER  — 
CAVALRY  CHARGE  AT  OPEOJJAN  —  VICTORIES  OF  FISHER'S  HILL  AND  CEDAR 
CREEK. 

AFTER  theMon- 
ocacy,  Maryland,  on 
the  4th  of  August, 
1864,  our  troops 
were  rapidly  mov- 
ing south  on  the 
kibes  of  Early's 
army.  Sheridan,  on 
the  loth  instant,  was 
ready  to  follow  tne 
veteran  rebel  com- 
mander to  Stras- 
burg,  whither  he 
had  fallen  back. 

The  confidence 
Sheridan  inspired 
in  Grant  was  re- 
warded by  the  lat- 
ter's  energetic  efforts 
to  prevent  Lee's 
reinforcing  Early, 
at  least  to  a  dangerous  degree.  On  the  1 2th  of  August,  Sheridan  was  in- 
formed from  City  Point  via  Washington,  that  two  divisions  of  infantry, 
twenty  guns,  and  a  considerable  force  of  cavalry  under  Gordon  and 


GEN.  SHERIDAN'S    HEADQUARTERS, 

EAST   SIDE   OF    CEDAR    CREEK,   AFTER    THE    BATTLE    OF    FISHER'S    HILL 


1 86  THE  LIFE  OF 

Lomax  had  been  sent  to  Early  by  Lee.  It  arrived  in  time  to  prevent 
Sheridan  attacking  Early  in  his  chosen  position,  thus  greatly  strength- 
ened. The  position  in  Virginia  could  "be  likened  to  an  irregularly 
formed  triangle,  the  base  of  which  was  occupied  by  the  Confederates 
under  Lee,  with  the  rebel  capital  to  hold  and  guard.  City  Point  with 
Grant  and  Meade's  army  might  well  be  considered  the  most  easterly 
point.  Washington  could  be  considered  the  northernmost  point  of 
our  triangle.  The  irregular  western  side  was  formed  of  the  Valley 
of  the  Shenandoah,  contested  by  Sheridan  and  Early.  In  other  words, 
the  Union  armies  held  the  left  flank  entirely,  were  penetrating  the 
centre  as  an  occupying  force,  and  contested  the  right  flank  (viewed 
from  Washington) ,  so  as  to  be  ready  to  strike  at  the  rebel  rear  from 
that  direction.  This  was  the  purpose  of  Grant's  plans,  and  by  it  he 
expected  to  smash  their  south  western  railroad  communications  at  Lynch- 
burg.  In  order,  then,  to  aid  Sheridan,  Grant  gave  orders  to  Meade  to 
again  threaten  Richmond  by  another  move  to  the  north  side  of  the 
James  River.  Hancock  was  placed  in  command  with  his  own  corps, 
part  of  the  Ninth  under  Birney,  and  Gregg's  cavalry  division.  They 
crossed  on  the  night  of  the  I3th.  Sheridan  was  near  Strasburg  on  the 
1 2th  when  Early  had  received  his  reinforcements.  The  movement  on 
the  James  seriously  threatened  Lee,  and  effectually  prevented  the  send- 
ing of  more  troops  to  Early.  During  these  days  of  severe  skirmishing, 
prisoners  were  captured  belonging  to  a  rebel  division  it  had  been  sup- 
posed was  in  the  valley.  Of  all  this  Sheridan  was  made  aware. 
Grant's  field  movements  lasted  till  the  latter  part  of  the  month,  and  we 
retained  as  a  result  our  hold  on  the  Weldon  railroad. 

Sheridan,  as  the  press  dispatches  of  the  period  show,  was  not  idle. 
The  New  York  Tribune  of  the  ist  of  August  repeats  an  admirer's 
statement  that  "  Sheridan  is  physically  the  smallest  major-general  I 
know,  but  he  is  mentally  one  of  the  largest."  On  the  loth  a  valley 
telegram  says:  "General  Sheridan  has  assumed  command  of  all  the 
troops  in  the  field  belonging  to  the  Department  of  West  Virginia,  the 
Susquehanna,  and  defenses  of  Washington.  His  headquarters  will  be  in 
the  saddle." 

On  the  morning  of  the  loth,  the  march  up  the  Shenandoah  Valley 
began.  Early  was  supposed  to  be  at  Winchester.  The  army  con- 
sisted of  the  Sixth  Corps,  the  Nineteenth  Corps,  Crook's  Kanawha 
Division  of  West  Virginia,  infantry  ;  and  Averill's,  Torbett's,  and  Wil- 
son's divisions  of  cavalry,  which  included  among  the  brigade  command- 
ers, Custer,  Deven,  and  Wesley  Merritt.  Torbett's  cavalry  division 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN.  187 

under  Davies  was  holding  the  roads  and  the  country  in  the  rear ;  Tor- 
bett  was  serving  as  chief  of  cavalry.  The  march  was  made  in  three 
columns,  and  the  first  halt  was  at  Berryville,  eleven  miles  east  of 
Winchester.  On  the  i3th  the  two  armies  were  at  Cedar  Creek,  "  the 
enemy,"  says  the  current  news  dispatches,  "  being  sorely  pressed  by 
our  advancing  columns,  who  are  harassing  their  rear  and  flanks. 
Early  marched  down  the  valley  but  a  few  hours  in-  advance  of  Sheridan, 
and  from  our  bivouacs  at  night  you  can  see  the  rebel  camp-fires." 
"  Little  Phil's  "  mettle  was  beginning  to  tell;  his  quality  was  raising 
the  morale  of  our  own  troops.  On  the  lyth  Sheridan's  headquarters 
were  established  at  a  farm-house  on  Cedar  Creek,  a  locality  which  was 
so  soon  to  be  inseparably  associated  with  his  military  renown.  Skir- 
mishing and  picket  firing  were  frequent.  Strasburg  was  taken  and 
retaken  several  times.  The  reports  of  the  zzdand  24th  say  "  Sheridan 
is  taking  good  care  of  Early,"  and  tell  of  a  brisk  engagement  between 
the  advanced  brigades  of  both  armies,  two  miles  beyond  Charlestown, 
memorable  as  the  place  where  Captain  John  Brown,  of  Kansas,  was 
hung  by  the  State  of  Virginia,  on  the  2d  of  December,  1859.  ^n  t^ie 
engagement  of  the  24th,  our  skirmishers  were  compelled  to  give  way, 
the  enemy  outnumbering  us,  and  also  occupying  a  very  strong  position. 
•  The  latter,  however,  steadily,  if  slowly,  was  pressing  the  Confederates 
southward,  becoming  intimately  familiar  with  the  topography,  condi- 
tions, and  resources  of  the  region  over  which  he  was  to  operate,  strength- 
ening his  rear  and  means  of  supply  ;  in  fact,  during  this  August  month, 
Sheridan  was  proving  himself  as  capable  a  general  "  in  taking  care," 
as  he  was  already  proven  to  be  in  forcing  the  fighting.  Since  the  death 
of  General  Sheridan,  in  a  notable  review  of  his  career,  shaped  and  col- 
ored, it  is  evident,  by  Charles  A.  Dana,  if  not  actually  written  by  him, 
the  New  York  Sun  has  said  : 

"This  necessarily  took  time,  but  time  which  the  sequel  showed  had 
been  well  spent. 

"The  government  was  filled  with  apprehension,  the  country  was 
alarmed,  not  only  at  the  deadlock  which  existed  on  the  James,  but  at 
the  danger  which  was  now  clearly  menacing  the  national  capital.  The 
newspapers  had  become  impatient,  and  asked  with  significant  intensity, 
'  Why  doesn't  Sheridan  do  something?'  Stocks  began  to  decline,  and 
gold,  already  alarmingly  high,  to  rise  still  higher,  which  showed  with 
unmistakable  certainty  how  anxiously  the  business  men  had  come  to 
regard  the  situation  of  military  affairs.  There  was  marching  and  coun- 
ter-marching ;  an  advance  and  a  counter-advance  ;  then  a  demonstration 


1 88  THE  LIFE  OF 

and  a  retreat  from  Winchester  to  Harper's  Ferry,  followed  by  louder 
mutterings  of  discontent,  and  a  still  higher  rise  in  the  price  of  gold. 
The  President  became  uneasy,  and  wrote  one  of  his  wisest  letters  to 
Grant,  who  in  turn  began  to  doubt,  and  when  he  could  stand  it  no 
longer  he  left  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  in  its  impregnable  position 
facing  Petersburg,  and  hurried  through  Washington  to  Harper's  Ferry 
to  see  for  himself  why  his  lieutenant  did  not  advance,  and  if  need  be  to 
give  him  a  plan  of  operations  and  to  stay  with  him  till  it  was  in  a  fair 
way  of  execution. 

"It  was  believed  then,  and  it  afterward  became  certain,  that  Sheri- 
dan's army  outnumbered  that  of  his  wily  antagonist  and  was  far  better 
clad,  armed,  and  supplied,  and  so  men  wondered  why  the  dashing  cav- 
alryman had  grown  so  cautious,  and  the  croakers  went  so  far  as  to 
declare  that  Grant  had  made  a  grave  mistake  in  putting  him  in  com- 
mand of  an  army. 

"  Thus  six  weeks  of  gloom  and  unhappiness  passed  over  the  country,' 
but  they  were  also  six  weeks  of  vigilance,  careful  study,  and  prepara- 
tion ;  and  when  Grant,  arriving  on  the  ground,  and  considering  the 
plan  which  he  found  to  his  joy  the  gallant  Sheridan  had  matured,  he 
stamped  it  with  his  approval  in  that  laconic  but  all-sufficient  order, 
'Go  in  !'  There  was  no  more  deliberation  or  delay.  Every  detail  had 
been  worked  out,  every  contingency  had  been  prepared  for,  and  the 
hour  of  action  and  of  victory  was  at  hand." 

In  this  wise,  Sheridan's  course  put  Early,  on  territory  entirely  famil- 
iar to  him,  almost  wholly  upon  the  defensive,  for  active  attacks  were 
only  made  to  anticipate  our  unquestioned  plans  of  advance.  At  the 
commencement  of  the  serious  work  in  the  valley  Sheridan's  department 
and  field  forces  were  as  follows  : 

ORGANIZATION   OF  THE   ARMY   OF  THE    SHENANDOAH    IN  THE 
MIDDLE  MILITARY  DIVISION,  ON  AUGUST  31,  1864. 

MAJOR-GENERAL  PHILIP  H.  SHERIDAN,  Commanding. 

GENERAL    HEADQUARTERS    ESCORT,    SIXTH   UNITED    STATES    CAVALRY. 

CAVALRY  FORCES. 
BRIGADIER-GENERAL  ALFRED  T.  A.  TORBETT,  Commanding. 

FIRST  DIVISION  (ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC  CAVALRY.) 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL  WESLEY  MERRITT. 

First  Brigade. — Brigadier-General  George  A.  Custer :  First  Michigan; 
Fifth  Michigan  ;  Sixth  Michigan  ;  Seventh  Michigan. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  189 

Second  Brigade,— Colonel  Thomas  C.  Deven  :  Fourth  New  York;  Sixth 
New  York;  Ninth  New  York;  Seventeenth  Pennsylvania;  First  United  States 
Artillery,  Batteries  K  and  L. 

Third  Brigade.— Colonel  Charles  R.  Lowell,  Jr.  :  First  Maryland  P.  H.  B.  ; 
Second  Massachusetts  ;  Twenty  -fifth  New  York. 

Reserve  Brigade. —  Colonel  Alfred  Gibbs  :  First  New  York  Dragoons;  Sixth 
Pennsylvania;  First  United  States;  Second  United  States;  Fifth  United  States; 
Second  United  States  Artillery,  Battery  D. 

THIRD    DIVISION  (ARMY   OF  THE   POTOMAC  CAVALRY.) 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL  JAMES  H.  WILSON. 

First  Brigade. —  Brigadier  General  J.  B.  Mclntosh  :  First  Connecticut : 
Third  New  Jersey ;  Second  New  York  ;  Fifth  New  York;  Second  Ohio;  Eight- 
eenth Pennsylvania. 

Second  Brigade. —  Brigadier-General  G.  H.  Chapman :  Third  Indiana 
(detached)  ;  First  New  Hampshire ;  Eighth  New  York ;  Twenty-second  New 
York ;  First  Vermont. 

Reserve   Horse   Artillery   Brigade. — Captain    La    Rhett  Livingston  :    First 

United  States   Artillery,    Battery  I;    Second   United  States   Artillery,   Battery 

,A;  Second  United  States  Artillery,  Batteries  B  and  C;  Second   United    States 

Artillery,  Battery  M;  Third  United  States  Artillery,  Battery  C;  Fourth  United 

States  Artillery,  Batteries  C  and  E. 

FIRST  DIVISION   (WEST  VIRGINIA   CAVALRY.) 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL  ALFRED  N.  DUFFIE. 

First  Brigade.—  Colonel  William  B.  Tibbets  :  Second  Maryland  P.  H.  B., 
Company  F;  First  New  York  (Lincoln);  First  New  York  Veteran;  Twenty- 
first  New  York;  Fourteenth  Pennsylvania. 

Second  Brigade. —  Colonel  John  E.  Wynkoop  :  Fifteenth  New  York;  Twen- 
tieth Pennsylvania;  Twenty-second  Pennsylvania. 

SECOND  DIVISION  (WEST  VIRGINIA   CAVALRY.) 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL  WILLIAM  W.  AVERILL. 

Eighth  Ohio;  First  West  Virginia  ;  Second  West  Virginia  ;  Third  West  Vir- 
ginia; Fifth  West  Virginia;  Fifth  United  States  Artillery,  Battery  L. 


SIXTH   ARMY   CORPS. 
MAJOR-GENERAL  HORATIO  G.  WRIGHT,  Commanding. 

FIRST  DIVISION. 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL  DAVID  A.  RUSSELL. 

First  Brigade. —  Colonel  W.  H.  Penrose  :  Fourth  New  Jersey ;  Tenth  New 
Jersey  ;  Fifteenth  New  Jersey. 


1 90  THE  LIFE  OF 


Second  Brigade. —  Brigadier-General  Emory  Upton:  Second  Connecticut 
Heavy  Artillery;  Sixty-fifth  New  York;  Sixty-seventh  New  York  (detached); 
One  Hundred  and  Twenty-first  New  York";  Ninety-fifth  Pennsylvania;  Ninety- 
sixth  Pennsylvania. 

Third  Brigade. —  Colonel  Oliver  Edwards:  Seventh  Massachusetts  (de- 
tached) ;  Tenth  Massachusetts  (detached)  ;  Thirty-seventh  Massachusetts ; 
Twenty-third  Pennsylvania  (detached);  Forty-ninth  Pennsylvania;  Eighty- 
second  Pennsylvania;  One  Hundred  and  Nineteenth  Pennsylvania;  Second 
Rhode  Island  Battalion;  Wisconsin  Battalion. 

SECOND  DIVISION. 
BRIGADIER-GENERAL  GEORGE  W.  GETTY. 

First  Brigade. —  Brigadier-General  Frank  Wheaton :  Sixty-second  New 
York;  Ninety-third  Pennsylvania;  Ninety-eighth  Pennsylvania;  One  Hun- 
dred and  Second  Pennsylvania ;  One  Hundred  and  Thirty-ninth  Pennsylvania. 

Second  Brigade. —  Brigadier-General  Lewis  A.  Grant;  Second  Vermont 
(detached);  Third  Vermont  (detached);  Fourth  Vermont;  Fifth  Vermont; 
Sixth  Vermont;  Eleventh  Vermont. 

Third  Brigade. —  Brigadier-General  Daniel  D.  Bidwell :  Seventh  Maine; 
Forty-third  New  York;  Forty-ninth  New  York;  Seventy-seventh  New  York; 
One  Hundred  and  Twenty-second  New  York;  Sixty-first  Pennsylvania. 

THIRD  DIVISION. 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL  JAMES  B.  RICKETTS. 

First  Brigade. —  Colonel  William  Emerson:  Fourteenth  New  Jersey;  One 
Hundred  and  Sixth  New  York;  One  Hundred  and  Fifty-first  New  York;  Eighty- 
seventh  Pennsylvania;  Tenth  Vermont. 

Second  Brigade. —  Colonel  J.  Warren  Keifer  :  Sixth  Maryland;  Ninth  New 
York  Heavy  Artillery;  One  Hundred  and  Tenth  Ohio;  One  Hundred  and 
Twenty-second  Ohio;  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-sixth  Ohio;  Sixty-seventh 
Pennsylvania;  One  Hundred  and  Thirty-eighth  Pennyslvania. 

ARTILLERY   BRIGADE. 

COLONEL  CHARLES  H.  TOMPKINS. 

Maine  Light  Artillery,  Fifth  Battery;  First  Massachusetts  Light  Artillery, 
Battery  A;  New  York  Light^Artillery,  First  Battery;  First  Rhode  Island  Light 
Artillery,  Battery  C;  First  Rhode  Island  Light  Artillery,  Battery  G;  Fifth 
United  States,  Battery  M. 

NINETEENTH   ARMY   CORPS. 
BRIGADIER-GENERAL  WILLIAM  H.  EMORY. 

FIRST   DIVISION. 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL  WILLIAM  DWIGHT. 

First  Brigade. —  Colonel  George  L.  Beal :  Twenty-ninth  Maine;  Thirtieth 
Massachusetts;  Ninetieth  New  York;  One  Hundred  and  Fourteenth  New  York; 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  191 

One  Hundred  and  Sixteenth  New  York ;  One  Hundred  and  Fifty-third  New 
York. 

Second  Brigade, —  Brigadier-General  J.  W.  McMillan  :  Twelfth  Connecticut; 
Thirteenth  Maine;  Fifteenth  Maine;  One  Hundred  and  Sixtieth  New  York; 
Forty-seventh  Pennsylvania ;  Eighth  Vermont. 

Third  Brigade.—  Colonel  L.  D.  H.  Currie  :  Thirtieth  Maine  ;  One  Hundred 
and  Thirty-third  New  York;  One  Hundred  and  Sixty-second  New  York ;  One 
Hundred  and  Sixty-fifth  New  York;  One  Hundred  and  Seventy-third  New- 
York. 

Artillery. —  New  York  Light  Artillery,  Fifth  Battery. 

SECOND  DIVISION. 

First  Brigade. —  Brigadier-General  Henry  W.  Birge  :  Ninth  Connecticut; 
Twelfth  Maine;  Fourteenth  Maine;  Twenty-sixth  Massachusetts;  Fourteenth 
New  Hampshire;  Seventy-fifth  New  York. 

Second  Brigade. —  Colonel  Edward  L.  Molineux  :  Thirteenth  Connecticut ; 
Third  Massachusetts  Cavalry  (dis.)  ;  Eleventh  Indiana;  Twenty-second 
Iowa;  One  Hundred  and  Thirty-first  New  York;  One  Hundred  and  Fifty-ninth 
New  York. 

Third  Brigade. —  Colonel  Jacob  Sharpe  :  Thirty-eighth  Massachusetts ; 
One  Hundred  and  Twenth-eighth  New  York;  One  Hundred  and  Fifty-sixth 
New  York;  One  Hundred  and  Seventy-fifth  New  York;  One  Hundred  and 
Seventy-sixth  New  York. 

Fourth  Brigade. —  Colonel  David  Shunk :  Eighth  Indiana;  Eighteenth 
Indiana;  Twenty-fourth  Iowa;  Twenty-eighth  Iowa. 

Artillery. —  Maine  Light  Artillery,  First  Battery. 

Reserve  Artillery. —  First  Rhode  Island  Light  Artillery,  Battery  D;  Indiana 
Light  Artillery,  Seventeenth  Battery. 


ARMY  OF  WEST  VIRGINIA. 
BRIGADIER-GENERAL  GEORGE  CROOK,  Commanding. 

FIRST  DIVISION. 
COLONEL  JOSEPH  HOBURN. 

First  Brigade. — Colonel  George  D.  Wells  :  Thirty-fourth  Massachusetts ; 
Fifth  New  York  Heavy  Artillery  (four  companies)  ;  One  Hundred  and  Sixteenth 
Ohio;  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-third  Ohio. 

Second  Brigade. —  Colonel  William  G.  Ely:  Eighteenth  Connecticut;  Second 
Eastern  Shore,  Maryland  ;  First  West  Virginia  ;  Fourth  West  Virginia  ;  Eleventh 
West  Virginia;  Fifteenth  West  Virginia. 

Third  Brigade. —  Colonel  Jacob  M.  Campbell :  Twentv-third  Illinois  ;  Fifty- 
fourth  Pennsylvania;  Tenth  West  Virginia;  Eleventh  West  Virginia;  Fifteenth 
West  Virginia. 


I92 


THE  LIFE  OF 

SECOND  DIVISION. 

COLONEL  ISAAC  H.  DUVAL. 


First  Brigade.—  Colonel  Rutherford  H/H^yes:  Twenty-third  Ohio;  Thirty- 
sixth  Ohio;  Fifth  West  Virginia;  Thirteenth  West  Virginia. 

Second  Brigade. —  Colonel  Daniel  D.  Johnson  :  Thirty-fourth  Ohio;  Ninety- 
first  Ohio;  Ninth  West  Virginia;  Fourteenth  West  Virginia. 


MILITARY   DISTRICT   OF   HARPER'S  FERRY. 
BRIGADIER-GENERAL  JOHN  D.  STEVENSON. 

Cavalry. —  Twelfth  Pennsylvania;  Virginia  Rangers;  Loudoun  Independent 
Company. 

Artillery. —  Indiana  Light  Artillery,  Seventeenth  Battery;  Kentucky  Light 
Artillery,  First  Battery;  Maryland  Light  Artillery,  Battery  A;  Maryland  Light 
Artillery,  Baltimore  Battery ;  FifthNewYork  Heavy  Artillery  ;  NewYorkLight 
Artillery,  Thirtieth  Battery;  New  York  Light  Artillery,  Thirty-second  Battery; 
Ohio  Light  Artillery,  First  Battery;  First  Ohio  Light  Artillery,  Battery  L; 
First  Pennsylvania  Light  Artillery,  Battery  G;  First  West  Virginia  Light 
Artillery,  Battery  A ;  First  West  Virginia  Light  Artillery,  Battery  F. 

Infantry.—  First  Maryland  P.  H.  B. ;  Second  Maryland  P.  H.  B. ;  One  Hun- 
dred and  Thirty-fifth  Ohio;  One  Hundred  and  Sixtieth  Ohio;  One  Hundred  and 
Sixty-first  Ohio. 


FORCES  WEST  OF  SLEEPY  CREEK. 
BRIGADIER-GENERAL  BENJAMIN  F.  KELLEY. 

Cavalry. —  Ohio  Third  Independent  Company;  Sixth  West  Virginia. 

Artillery. —  First  Illinois,  Battery  L;  First  West  Virginia,  Battery  H;  First 
Maryland,  Battery  B. 

Infantry. — One   Hundred  and  Twenty-second   Ohio;     Sixth  West   Virginia; 
One  Hundred  and  Sixty-fifth  Ohio. 


KANAWHA  VALLEY  FORCES. 
BRIGADIER-GENERAL  JEREMIAH  C.  SULLIVAN. 

Seventh  West  Virginia  Cavalry;  First  Pennsylvania  Light  Artillery,  Battery 
D;  Pennsylvania  Acting  Engineers,  Independent  Company;  Virginia  Exempts, 
Independent  Company  A;  Veteran  Reserve  Corps,  One  Hundred  and  Thirty- 
second  Company,  Second  Battery ;  First  West  Virginia  Light  Artillery,  Battery 
D;  First  West  Virginia  Light  Artillery,  Battery  E ;  Fifth  United  States  Artil- 
lery, Battery  B. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  193 

Early  in  September,  Grant  determined  on  an  immediate  advance 
in  the  valley.  He  says  in  his  Memoirs : 

"Knowing  that  it  was  impossible  for  me  to  get  orders  through 
Washington  to  Sheridan  to  make  a  move  because  they  would  be  stopped 
there,  and  such  orders  as  Halleck's  caution  (and  that  of  the  Secretary 
of  War)  would  suggest,  would  be  given  instead,  and  that  they  would, 
no  doubt,  be  contradictory  to  mine,  I  therefore,  without  stopping  at 
Washington,  went  directly  through  to  Charlestown,  some  ten  miles 
above  Harper's  Ferry,  and  waited  there  to  see  Sheridan,  having  sent  a 
courier  in  advance  to  tell  him  where  to  meet  me." 

The  result  of  this  meeting  is  pertinently  summed  up  in  Grant's 
order  "  Go  in."  The  general  tells  the  story  of  this  famous  interview 
in  a  letter  quoted  by  Badeau  : 

"  When  I  visited  Sheridan  at  Charlestown  I  had  a  plan  of  battle 
with  me  to  give  him,  but  I  found  him  so  ready  to  move  —  plan  and  all 
—  that  I  gave  him  no  order  whatever,  except  the  authority  to  move. 
He  is  entitled  to  all  the  credit  of  his  great  victory,  and  it  established 
him  in  the  confidence  of  the  President  and  Secretary  of  War  as  a 
commander  to  be  trusted  in  the  management  of  the  troops  under  him. 
Before  that,  while  they  highly  appreciated  him  as  a  commander  to  exe- 
cute, they  felt  a  little  nervous  about  giving  him  too  much  discretion." 

The  order  suited  the  man  and  the  occasion.  It  suited  his  troops. 
They  did  "go  in"  for  victory.  Grant  had  a  map  in  his  pocket,  but 
before  using  it  he  asked  if  Sheridan  had  one.  From  his  pocket  came 
map  and  plan,  anticipating,  as  was  seen,  all  of  the  commanding  gene- 
ral's ideas.  Our  troops  were  in  front  of  Berry ville  on  the  turnpike 
leading  from  that  town  across  the  Opequan  Creek  to  Winchester. 

Early  was  on  the  same  road  west  of  the  ford  of  the  Opequan,  which 
is  about  four  miles  east  of  Winchester.  In  this  wise  he  covered  the 
town.  Thinking  that  Sheridan  would  be  on  the  offensive,  Early  had 
extended  the  bulk  of  his  army,  by  his  left,  to  Bunker  Hill,  leaving  his 
right  on  the  Berry  ville  road,  weak  and  isolated. 

The  Confederate  commander  was  described  at  the  time  as  "  a  man 
past  middle  life  and  of  vigorous  and  athletic  appearance.  His  stature 
approached  if  it  did  not  reach  six  feet,  and  he  seemed  to  be  capable  of 
undergoing  great  fatigue.  His  hair  was  black  and  curling,  and  just 
touched  with  gray ;  his  eyes  dark  and  sparkling,  his  smile  ready  and 
expressive,  but  somewhat  sarcastic,  as  was  the  bent  of  his  character. 
His  dress  was  plain  gray,  with  slight  decoration  ;  long  exposure  had 
made  the  old  coat  which  he  wore  quite  dingy ;  a  wide-brimmed  hat 

13 


i94  THE  LIFE  OF 

overshadowed  his  sparkling  eyes,  his  swarthy  featffres,  and  grizzled 
hair ;  his  face,  set  upon  a  short  neck  joined  to  stooping  shoulders, 
attracted  attention  from  every  one."  ,"•'*•» 

The  campaign  actively  began  on  the  Union  side  by  the  issuing  to 
General  Torbett,  who  was  chief  of  cavalry,  of  the  following  order : 

HEADQUARTERS  MIDDLE  MILITARY  DIVISION,  ) 

CEDAR  CREEK,  VIRGINIA,  August  16,  1864.  j 
General: 

In  compliance  with  instructions  of  the  lieutenant-general  command- 
ing, you  will  make  the  necessary  arrangements  and  give  the  necessary 
orders  for  the  destruction  of  the  wheat  and  hay  south  of  a  line  from 
Millwood  to  Winchester  and  Petticoat  Gap.  You  will  seize  all  mules, 
horses,  and  cattle  that  may  be  useful  to  our  army.  Loyal  citizens  can 
bring  in  their  claims  against  the  government  for  this  necessary  destruc- 
tion. No  houses  will  be  burned,  and  officers  in  charge  of  this  delicate 
but  necessary  duty  must  inform  the  people  that  the  object  is  to  make 
the  valley  untenable  for  the  raiding  parties  of  the  rebel  army. 
Very  respectfully, 

P.  H.  SHERIDAN,  Major- General  Commanding. 
Brig.-Gen.  A.  T.  A.  TORBETT,  Chief  of  Cavalry,  Middle  Military  Division. 

The  same  day  a  cavalry  engagement  occurred  at  Front  Royal 
between  3,000  Union  cavalry  under  Merritt,  and  3,500  Confederates, 
cavalry  and  infantry,  which  resulted  in  a  Union  victory.  At  this  time 
Sheridan  who  was  about  to  make  a  bold  move  directly  to  Early's  rear, 
had  watched  him  keenly,  and  when  on  the  8th,  the  Confederate  leader 
sent  half  his  army  from  Bunker  Hill  on  a  reconnaissance  to  Martins- 
burg  (which  Averill  repulsed),  he  determined  to  "go  in"  at  once, 
crush  Early's  weak  right,  and  cut  up  the  remainder  of  his  force  in 
detail.  The  Union  forces  were  under  arms  that  evening,  and  at  3  A.  M. 
they  were  all  in  motion  toward  Winchester,  Wilson's  cavalry  leading ; 
Wright's  corps,  the  Sixth,  followed  in  double  columns,  flanking  the 
Berryville  road,  while  its  artillery  and  wagon  train  occupied  that  high- 
way. The  Nineteenth  Corps  under  General  Emory  followed  in  the 
same  order.  Early  had  pushed  his  largest  force  from  Bunker  Hill  to 
Martinsburg  on  the  extreme  left.  Sheridan  designed  to  get  his  army 
across  the  Opequan  and  smash  the  weakened  right  wing  of  the  rebels 
before  aid  could  arrive.  Crook,  commanding  the  Eighth  Corps,  in 
position  near  Summit  Point  toward  the  left,  was  ordered  to  join  the 
main  army  at  the  ford.  Torbett  and  Averill,  with  their  cavalry  divis- 
ions, were  left  to  make  vigorous  demonstrations  on  Early's  left. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 


WHERE     SHERIDAN     CROSSED    HIS 

ARMY    BEFORE    THE   BATTLE 

OF  WINCHESTER. 


At  day- 
break Wil- 
son's caval- 
ry was  over 
the  Ope- 
quan  and  in 
possession 
o  f  a  n  ar- 
row mount- 
ain  gorge 
or  pass, 
through 
which  alone 
our  army 
could  move. 

In  this  bril-   THE  OPEQUAN  FORD, 
liant    sortie 
the   cavalry 
swept    all 

before  them,  till  they  secured  a  space 
within  two  miles  of  Winchester,  suf- 
ficient  for   the    deployment    of    our 
forces.       The   Sixth    Corps  followed 
sharply,  but  the  Nineteenth  was   de- 
layed.    So  our  line  of  battle  was  not  formed 
o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  i9th  of  September. 
Wright  held  the  right,  Wilson's  cavalry  extending 
on  its  flanks.     Emory  held  the  centre  and  left,  and 
Crook's  West  Virginians  were  held  as  reserve. 

Early  had  been  for  hours  hurrying  his  troops  back  from  Bunker 
Hill.  Sheridan  was  well  posted  as  to  his  movements,  but  the  delay  of 
the  Nineteenth  Corps  enabled  the  Confederate  commander  to  get  his 
entire  force  into  a  strongly  fortified  position,  on  a  series  of  detached 
hills  northwestward  of  the  town.  They  had  a  powerful  line  thrown 
well  forward  for  the  purpose  of  breaking  our  lines  toy  a  vigorous  charge, 
hoping  thereby  to  seize  the  gorge  already  mentioned,  through]  which 
alone  if  beaten,  we  might  retreat.  Early  made  the  mistake  of  his  mili- 
tary career  in  allowing  us  to  obtain  control  of  the  gorge  Wilson  had 
seized. 

Averill  had  hung  closely  on  the  rebel  rear  from  Bunker  Hill,  and 
now  formed  a  junction  on  our  left  with  Merritt's  troopers.  This  pow- 


1 96  THE  LIFE  OF 

erful  cavalry  force  enveloped  Winchester  on  the  east  and  north.  Early's 
position  gave  a  strong  defensive  capacity.  Our  cavalry  gave  Sheridan 
a  great  advantage,  not  one  iota  of  which  was  neglected  during  the  hot 
scenes  of  that  fiercely  contested  field.  Between  the  two  positions,  the 
ground  was  rugged,  rising,  and  quite  heavily  wooded.  Troops  found 
it  difficult  to  move  over  it.  The  left  and  centre  of  Early's  position 
seemed  to  be  the  only  vulnerable  ones.  To  reach  them,  the  Union 
troops  must  pass  through  a  narrow  pass  flanked  by  wooded  hills.  Un- 
der Sheridan's  eager  orders,  Ricketts'  division  of  the  Sixth  Corps  was 
sent  forward,  followed  immediately  by  a  division  of  the  Nineteenth, 
under  Grover.  Both  commanders  were  old  army  officers.  The  pass 
was  gained.  Amid  a  terrible  storm  of  shell,  Early's  centre  was  charged 
in  splendid  style,  and  the  first  line  of  his  work  remained  in  our  hands. 
General  Rhodes,  Confederate  division  commander,  was  slain  in  this 
charge,  at  the  head  of  his  troops.  Early  hurled  heavy  masses  of  fresh 
troops  upon  our  divisions,  which  fell  back  in  disorder  upon  the  narrow 
pass,  from  whence  they  had  just  before,  at  10  A.  M.,  so  steadily  emerged. 
A  heavy  flanking  fire  increased  the  rout,  when  Captain  Rigby,  a  ser- 
geant, and  twelve  men  of  the  Twenty-fourth  Iowa,  at  a  designated  point 
turned  on  the  pursuing  foe,  and  by  heroic  efforts  wtre  able  to  clear  a 
space  and  gather  a  considerable  force.  Grover  then  ordered  two  guns 
of  the  First  Maine  Battery,  Captain  Bradbury  commanding,  into  the 
gap.  The  fire  checked  the  Confederate  advance.  The  One  Hundred 
and  Thirty-first  New  York  at  the  same  time  got  into  their  rear  and 
poured  a  destructive  volley  upon  the  foe,  making  them  rapidly  recoil. 
A  second  volley  sent  them  flying  back  to  their  positions.  There  was 
rapid  rallying  and  re-formation  of  the  Union  lines,  under  Sheridan's 
eye,  and  again  the  two  divisions  advanced.  The  fighting  was  most 
desperate,  charge  and  counter-charge,  bayonet  against  battery,  with 
varying  fortune,  until  about  four  in  the  afternoon,  when,  with  loud 
shouts,  Crook's  corps  of  West  Virginians  and  Torbett's  cavalry  divis- 
ion swung  superbly  from  the  woods  on  the  Union  right,  pressing  for- 
ward in  the  face  of  a  concentrated  and  murderous  fire,  and  charged 
boldly  on  Early's  left.  The  sight  was  inspiriting,  and  at  once  the  Union 
lines  moved  solidly  forward  on  the  rebel  right  and  centre.  Wilson's 
cavalry  swung  in  on  the  right  flank,  and  without  halting,  continually 
charged  the  retreating  Confederates,  following  them  to  their  fortified 
heights.  There  was  no  halting  there.  "  Forward,"  was  the  cry.  In 
a  few  moments  the  heights  were  captured.  Early's  broken  and  con- 
fused columns  fled  in  great  disorder  towards  Strasburg.  The  victory 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  197 

was  ours.  The  field  was  hotly,  fiercely  contested,  and  the  result 
hung  for  hours  in  the  wavering  balances  of  war.  They  left  in  our 
hands  2,500  prisoners,  nine  battle-flags,  and  five  pieces  of  artillery. 
It  was  not  until  long  after  dark  that  the  pursuit  ceased,  and  the  stars 
shone  over  Sheridan's  first  victory  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley.  The 
battle  of  Winchester  was  ours.  The  rebel  wounded  found  in  the 
town  numbered  3,100.  From  his  headquarters  in.  Lloyd  Logan's 
house,  Sheridan  sent  Secretary  Stanton  a  dispatch  saying : 

"  We  have  just  sent  the  rebels  whirling  through  Winchester,  and 
are  after  them  to-morrow." 

That  was  the  key-note  of  all  Sheridan's  actions.  This  first  thoroughly 
successful  battle  of  the  Union  armies  in  the  Valley  of  the  Shenandoah 
was  not  only  a  signal  illustration  of  the  valor  of  our  soldiers,  as  well  as 
the  boldness  and  skill  of  their  commander,  but  it  was  evidence  also  of 
the  value  of  the  Union  sentiment  which  still  prevailed  in  the  region. 

A  competent  critic  has  said  since  the  general's  death  that:  "The 
battle  of  the  Opequan  was  fought  with  the  precision  of  clock-work,1 
and  that  was  the  first  one  of  the  war  in  which  cavalry,  artillery,  and 
infantry  were  all  used  concurrently  and  to  the  best  possible  advantage, 
each  accorcHng  to  its  own  nature  and  traditions.  The  overthrow  of 
the  enemy  was  absolute  and  complete.  The  country  was  electrified, 
and  the  shadow  of  gloom  which  had  hung  over  it  was  dispelled  as  if  by 
magic.  Gold  took  such  a  tumble  as  it  had  not  received  since  the  out- 
break of  the  rebellion,  and  thenceforth  no  man  of  sense  doubted  the 
ultimate  triumph  of  our  arms,  or  the  reestablishment  of  the  Union." 

The  story  of  Rebecca  I.  Wright,  a  young  Quaker  lady  of  Win- 
chester, has  become  of  late  familiar  to  the  public.  It  will  bear  retelling. 
No  soldier  who  entered  Winchester  on  the  night  of  September  19th, 
1864,  deserves  more  honor  than  the  modest  little  Quaker  maiden,  through 
whose  intelligence  and  courage  Sheridan  gained  the  information  which 
warranted  the  movements  he  was  making  for  crossing  the  Opequan. 
Here  is  the  story  as  told  in  the  press,  and  verified  for  this  work  from 
the  official  records  : 

Miss  Wright  was  the  unmarried  daughter  of  a  Quaker  family  living; 
in  Winchester.  Her  old  father  had  died  a  prisoner  in  Confederate 
hands.  Her  mother  and  little  brother,  with  Miss  Rebecca,  constituted 
the  family.  The  Union  generals  all  knew  their  steadfast  loyalty,  and 
Crook  especially  trusted  Miss  Wright.  She  told  the  story  during 
General  Sheridan's  sickness  : 

"  I  was  engaged  in  some  household  duties  about  noon  on  the  i6th 


198  THE  LIFE  OF 

of  September,  '64.  I  was  interrupted  by  a  knock  at  the  door,  and,  on 
opening  it,  1  found  an  intelligent  looking  colored  man,  who  asked  to 
see  Miss  Wright.  There  were  two  Misses  Wright  living  in  Winches- 
ter, and  I  asked  which  he  wanted.  '  Miss  Rebecca,'  he  said  ;  '  the 
other  is  in  sympathy  with  the  rebels.'  He  would  not  say  what  he 
wanted,  but  after  looking  about  carefully,  asked  to  be  allowed  to  speak 
with  me  alone.  I  was  impressed  by  his  manner,  and  took  him  into 
another  room.  He  at  once  closed  the  door,  and  I  became  alarmed,  as 
my  mother  and  I  were  alone  in  the  house.  But  he  immediately  said  he 
had  a  note  from  General  Sheridan,  who  wanted  me  to  give  him  all  the 
information  I  could  concerning  the  rebel  forces.  He  took  from  his 
mouth  a  little  wad  of  tinfoil,  which  proved  to  be  a  letter  from  Gen- 
eral Sheridan,  written  on  tissue  paper.  The  colored  man  said  he  had 
carried  it  all  the  way  in  his  mouth,  and  had  been  instructed  to  swrallow 
it  if  molested  by  the  Confederate  pickets.  He  was  engaged  in  carrying 
provisions  through  the  lines  for  the  use  of  the  town,  and  General 
Sheridan  had  secured  his  services  in  this  matter.  I  was  taken  by  sur- 
prise and  did  not  know  what  to  do.  I  did  not  know  how  far  I  could 
trust  the  man,  fearing  that  there  might  be  a  trick  to  get  me  into  trouble, 
and  I  told  him  that  I  knew  nothing  about  the  rebels.  But  the  man 
spoke  very  intelligently  and  gave  such  evidences  of  earnestness  that  I 
concluded  to  trust  him.  While  he  was  talking  I  was  tearing  the  tinfoil. 

"  '  Don't,  don't !  '  he  said.  '  You  will  need  that  to  wrap  the  reply 
in.' 

"  He  said  he  would  return  at  3  o'clock. 

"  After  his  departure  I  read  the  note.  It  was  written  on  very  thin, 
yellow  tissue  paper,  which  was  greatly  wrinkled  and  mussed  from 
being  folded  so  tightly." 

It  is  still  preserved.  "Miss  Rebecca"  is  now  Mrs.  Bonsai,  and 
lives  in  Washington.  The  framed  letter  reads  as  follows : 

SEPTEMBER  15,  1864. 

I  learn  from  Major-General  Crook  that  you  are  a  loyal  lady  and 
still  love  the  old  flag. 

Can  you  inform  me  of  the  position  of  Early's  forces,  the  number  of 
divisions  in  his  army,  and  the  strength  of  all  or  any  of  them,  and  his 
probable  or  reported  intentions  ?  Have  any  more  troops  arrived  from 
Richmond,  or  are  any  more  coming,  or  reported  to  be  coming?  I  am, 
very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant,  P.  II .  SHERIDAN, 

Major-  General  Commanding. 

You  can  trust  the  bearer. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  199 

"After  reading  the  letter,  I  went  at  once  to  my  mother  and  told  her 
what  had  occurred.  We  were  almost  overpowered  by  the  thought  of  the 
great  danger  we  were  in,  but  we  concluded  to  run  the  risk. 

"If  it  had  not  been  for  an  accident,  that  seems  to  have  been  provi- 
dential, I  should  have  known  nothing  to  tell  General  Sheridan  that 
would  have  been  of  value  to  him.  As  it  happened,  I  did  not  know 
how  valuable  the  information  I  possessed  might  be.  My  mother  and  I 
were  known  to  be  loyal,  and  the  Confederates  had  very  little  to  do  with 
us,  so  we  knew  nothing  of  them  or  of  what  was  going  on.  But  a  Con- 
federate officer,  who  had  been  wounded  and  was  then  convalescent, 
was  boarding  with  one  of  our  neighbors.  As  a  convalescent,  he  wan- 
dered about  at  will,  and  knew  all  about  the  strength  and  movements, 
the  dangers,  the  hopes,  and  the  fears  of  Early's  forces.  It  happened  that 
just  two  evenings  before  I  got  General  Sheridan's  letter,  or  before  I  had 
any  thought  of  serving  him  or  the  Union  cause,  this  young  Confederate 
asked  permission  to  call  on  me.  He  had  often  observed  me  from  his 
window  arranging  or  gathering  my  flowers,  and  he  was  lonely  and 
sought  my  company.  So  it  chanced  that  two  evenings  before  I  got  the 
note  the  officer  was  at  our  house.  We  were  strangers,  with  nothing  in 
common  to  talk  about,  so  this  conversation  turned  upon  the  war,  and 
more  especially  the  state  of  affairs  directly  about  us.  He  described 
the  situation  from  his  stand-point  —  how  many  troops  they  had  and 
what  they  must  rely  on.  I  asked  questions  without  any  purpose  except 
to  keep  up  the  conversation,  and  he  answered  freely.  I  had  no  idea  of 
what  importance  all  this  was,  or  that  it  would  ever  come  of  use  to  me, 
but  when  1  read  General  Sheridan's  letter  it  at  once  occurred  to  me  that 
I  could  tell  him  what  the  Confederate  had  told  me. 

"  When  the  colored  man  returned  I  gave  him  an  answer  to  the  gen- 
eral's letter,  telling  the  number  of  troops,  their  situation,  and  the  fact 
that  some  had  been  called  off  for  service  elsewhere.  I  told  him,  in 
fact,  the  very  things,  as  I  see  now,  that  he  most  wanted  to  know  :  but 
I  expressed  regret  that  I  could  not  give  more  information,  .and  said  I 
would  try  :o  gather  more  for  him  if  he  would  send  the  messenger  back 
in  a  day  or  two. 

"The  colored  man  put  the  letter  in  his  mouth  and  left  the  house 
quietly.  Many  times  during  the  next  day,  Saturday,  and  the  quiet  Sab- 
bath that  followed,  I  wondered  what  had  become  of  the  messenger,  and 
what  would  result  from  my  note. 

"  When  I  was  awakened  Monday  morning  by  the  booming  of  can- 
non my  first  thought  was  whether  my  note  had  anything  to  do  with  it. 


200  THE  LIFE  OF 

It  was  a  terrible  fight,  and  in  the  afternoon,  when  the  streets  were  filled 
with  troops,  wagons,  cannon,  and  the  poor  suffering  wounded,  and  the 
buildings  were  on  fire  all  around  us,  my  mother  asked  me,  with  tears  in 
her  eyes,  *if  I  thougnt  my  note  had  anything  to  do  with  this  battle.  I 
had  thought  of  that  all  day,  and  I  was  overwhelmed.  I  hid  my  face  in 
my  hands,  and  cried  :  '  O  !  no,  no  !  I  don't  believe  he  got  it.'  It  was 
the  most  terrible  day  of  all  my  experience.  Houses  about  us  were  on 
fire,  our  own  fence  was  burning,  and  shells  fell  so  near  that  my  mother 
and  I  went  into  the  cellar  for  safety.  Finally  the  rumbling  of  battle 
grew  fainter  and  fainter,  until  it  got  so  quiet  I  could  not  endure  to 
remain  in  the  cellar  in  ignorance  of  the  result.  From  the  first  floor  I 
could  see  nothing ;  nothing  from  the  second  floor  ;  but  from  the  garret 
windows  I  saw  the  old  American  flag  coming  in  the  town.  I  dropped 
upon  my  knees.  I  soon  learned  whether  my  note  had  to  do  with  the 
battle. 

"  Hearing  sabres  clattering  against  the  steps,  I  started  to  the  front 
door,  and  met  two  Union  officers,  already  inside  the  house.  One  intro- 
duced himself  as  General  Sheridan.  He  told  me  that  it  was  entirely 
from  the  information  I  had  sent  him  that' he  fought  the  battie,  and  he 
thanked  me  earnestly,  saying  he  would  never  forget  my  courage  and 
patriotism.  I  was  so  fearful  of  suspicion  that  I  would  hardly  permit 
him  to  speak  to  me.  I  knew  that  should  the  southern  people  discover 
the  part  I  had  in  the  battle,  my  life  would  not  be  worth  much,  and  I 
was  afraid  to  have  the  general  talk  to  me.  I  begged  him  not  to  speak 
of  it ;  that  my  life  would  be  in  danger  when  the  Federal  troops  went 
away.  General  Sheridan  replied  that  the  Confederates  would  never 
come  again.  He  wrote  his  report  at  my  desk,  and  called  in  the  morn- 
ing to  say  good-bye  before  following  Early  to  Fisher's. 

"  He  rode  a  beautiful  black  horse  that  morning.  I  lived  on  quietly 
at  Winchester  until  1867,  and  no  one  suspected  me.  They  knew 
nothing  of  the  matter  until  the  watch  arrived,  accompanied  by  a  letter 
from  General  Sheridan.  Then  the  Union  people  gathered  *round  me 
in  astonishment.  I  remember  an  old  man  who  took  both  my  hands  in 
his  and  said  :  c  Why  my  little  girl,  there  was  not  a  man  in  the  place 
who  would  have  dared  do  such  a  thing.  As  much  as  I  loved  the 
Union  I  would  not  have  had  the  courage.'  Most  of  the  community 
were  wild  with  indignation,  but  the  war  was  over  and  they  could  do 
me  no  injury.  But  they  showed  their  dislike  for  me  in  nuny  ways. 
The  boys  used  to  spit  at  me  on  the  street. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 


201 


"  I  had  no  conception  of  the  service  I  had  done  until  I  received  this 
•letter: 

"HEADQUARTERS  DEPARTMENT  OF  GULF, 
NEW  ORLEANS. 


ARTMENT  OF  GULF,  ) 

;,  Jan.  7,  1867.  I 


"  MY  DEAR  Miss  WRIGHT  :  You  are  probably  not  aware  of  the  ser- 
vice you  rendered  the  Union  cause  by  the  information  you  sent  me  by 
the  colored  man  a  few  days  before  the  Opequan,  on  September  19, 
1864.  It  was  on  this  information  the  battle  was  fought  and  probably 
won.  The  colored  man  gave  the  note  rolled  up  in  tinfoil  to  the  scout, 
who  awaited  him  at  Millwood.  The  colored  man  had  carried  it  in  his 
mouth  to  that  point  and  delivered  it  to  the  scout,  who  brought  it  to  me. 

"  By  this  note  I  became  aware  of  the  true  condition  of  affairs  inside 
of  the  enemy's  lines,  and  gave  directions  for  the  attack.  I  will  always 
remember  this  courageous  and  patriotic  action  of  yours  with  gratitude, 
and  beg  you  to  accept  the  watch  and  chain  which  I  send  you  by  General 
J.  W.  Forsyth,  as  a  memento  of  September  19,  1864." 

This  letter  is  put  in  a  double  frame,  so  as  to  show  the  writing  on 
both  sides.  On  the  back  of  it  is  an  indorsement  by  General  Grant,  in 
his  own  hand,  asking 
an  appointment  for 
(then)  Miss  Wright 
to  a  position  in  the 
Treasury  Depart- 
ment. A  report  was 
also  made  by  a  com- 
mittee of  Congress 
and  ordered  printed. 
While  in  the  Treas- 
ury she  met  and  mar- 
ried Mr.  Bonsai. 

The  watch,  a 
handsome  one  of 
gold,  bears  the  in- 
scription :  "  Presen- 
ted to  Rebecca  I. 
Wright,  September 
19,  1867,  by  General 
Phil  H.  Sheridan. 
A  memento  of  Sep.  MR$>  ^  BQNSAL 

tember     19,     1064. 

T.       •  i        j       4  FORMERLY    MISS  WRIGHT,   UPON    WHOSE    INFORMATION    SHERIDAN 

It    IS    attached    to    a  FOUGHT  THE  BATTLE  OF  W.NCHESTER. 


202  THE  LIFE  OF 

long  gold  chain,  fastened  at  the  neck  with  a  clasp  representing  a  horse- 
shoe, a  military  gauntlet,  and  stirrups*.  ^Hanging  to  a  short  end  is  a 
sword,  a  key,  and  a  seal.  Mrs.  Bonsai  is  a  lady  of  fifty,  but  she  appears 
ten  or  fifteen  years  younger.  Her  manner  is  quiet,  and  her  face  expresses 
amiability  and  all  the  gentler  womanly  qualities. 

Early  was  both  early  and  late  on  the  way  from  Sheridan's  cavalry. 
His  flight  was  not  stopped  until  the  Confederate  forces  reached  Fisher's 
Hill,  beyond  Strasburg.  Here  they  occupied  a  very  strong  position, 
previously  prepared  for  an  emergency.  Sheridan  kept  the  promise 
made  in  his  dispatches  "to  be  after  the  foe  early  in  the  morning." 
His  cavalry  was  moving  towards  Strasburg  by  daybreak.  The 
whole  army  was  soon  en  route,  full  of  that  electric  fervor  of  vic- 
tory which  makes  the  soldier  forget  fatigue  and  wounds,  and  causes 
him  to  feel  as  if  the  world  was  akin  to  his  mood,  beating  in  rhythmic 
jubilance  with  the  passion  of  triumph  wherewith  he  is  animated. 

Our  army  was  in  front  of  Fisher's  Hill  on  the  early  forenoon  of  the 
22d.  Early  was  found  intrenched  strongly  in  a  defensible  position, 
with  his  left  resting  on  the  adjacent  North  Mountain.  But  Sheridan 
never  hesitated.  Torbett,  with  two  divisions  of  cavalry,  was  sent  by 
way  of  the  Luray  Valley,  to  take  Newmarket,  thirty  miles  in  Early's 
rear.  The  Eighth  Corps,  under  his  old  classmate,  General  Crook,  was 
sent  to  gain  the  rear  and  left  of  Early's  lines,  beyond  the  North  Mount- 
ain, with  the  Sixth  and  Nineteenth  corps,  commanded  by  Wright  and 
Emory,  screened  by  the  cavalry  under  Averill.  Sheridan,  at  4  p.  M., 
impetuously  advanced  to  a  general  attack.  The  weight  of  the  attack 
was  made,  front  and  rear,  on  Early's  left.  It  gave  way  almost  im- 
mediately, driven  in  upon  the  centre  by  the  weight  of  the  impetuous 
assault.  The  North  Mountain  was  cleared  at  once.  When  the  advanc- 
ing lines  were  swiftly  precipitated  on  Early's  centre,  the  whole  of  the 
rebel  infantry  broke,  and  retreated  down  the  valley  in  great  disorder, 
leaving  sixteen  guns  and  a  thousand  prisoners  in  our  hands.  The  vic- 
tory was  complete.  All  that  saved  Early's  army  from  entire  destruc- 
tion as  an  organization,  was  the  stubborn  fight  made  against  Torbett, 
at  Milford,  in  the  Luray  Valley,  by  the  Confederate  cavalry  under 
General  Wickham,  who  at  Front  Royal  the  day  before  (September 
2ist),  had  fought  Wilson  most  vigorously.  Torbett  was  held  all  day 
in  check  at  Milford,  finally  at  sundown  driving  Wickham  before  him. 
Front  Royal  was  a  draw.  Both  were  splendid  and  well-matched  cav- 
alry battles,  in  which  the  advantages  finally  rested  with  us,  but  the 
stubborn  fighting  of  the  Confederate  troopers  saved  their  army  never- 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  2o? 

theless.  General  Wickham  afterwards  served  in  the  United  States 
Senate  from  Virginia  as  a  Republican. 

Sheridan  pursued  Early,  as  Grant  desired  and  his  own  wishes  dic- 
tated. He  overtook  them  at  Port  Republic,  charging  their  broken 
lines  with  his  cavalry,  backed  by  infantry  supports,  and  drove  them 
again,  destroying  their  supply  train  of  seventy-five  wagons.  Our 
cavalry  continued  the  pursuit  until  Early's  army  found  shelter  in  the 
passes  of  the  Blue  Ridge.  A  large  quantity  of  army  stores  were 
destroyed  at  Staunton.  From  that  point,  our  cavalry  passing  on  to 
Waynesboro',  laid  waste  the  Virginia  Central  railroad,  destroying  it 
utterly  for  several  miles.  A  large  Confederate  tannery  was  also  burned. 

Then  came  the  execution  of  Grant's  order  to  leave  nothing  in  the 
valley  to  invite  the  return  of  the  enemy.  All  our  cavalry  was  recalled 
to  Sheridan's  headquarters,  and  down  the  valley  went  the  Union  army, 
destroying  all  supplies  as  they  moved. 

When  this  serious  but  necessary  work  was  completed,  our  entire 
force  was  placed  behind  Cedar  Creek,  "  twenty  miles  away  "  from 
Winchester,  between  Middletown  and  Strasburg.  Field  headquarters 
were  established  at  the  residence  of  Benjamin  B.  Cooley. 

Sheridan's  dispatches  at  this  period  tell  the  man  as  much  as  his  acts 
proclaim  the  soldier.  In  a  report  on  the  raid  following  the  victory  of 
Fisher's  Hill,  Sheridan  wrote  : 

"  In  moving  back  to  this  point  the  whole  country  from  the  Blue 
Ridge  to  the  North  Mountain  has  been  made  untenable  for  a  rebel 
army.  I  have  destroyed  over  two  thousand  barns  filled  with  wheat, 
hay,  and  farming  implements,  and  over  seventy  mills  filled  with  flour 
and  wheat,  have  driven  in  front  of  this  army  over  four  thousand  head 
of  stock,  and  have  killed  and  issued  to  the  troops  over  three  thousand 
sheep.  Since  I  entered  the  valley  from  Harper's  Ferry,  every  train, 
every  small  party,  and  every  straggler  has  been  bushwhacked  by  the 
people,  many  of  whom  have  protection  papers.  Lieutenant  Meigs 
and  his  engineer  officer  were  murdered  near  Dayton  ;  .  .  for  this 

atrocious  act,"  continued  Sheridan,  ;<  all  the  houses  within  an  area  of 
five  miles  were  burned."  Badeau,  in  the  Military  Life  of  Grant, 
says : 

u  Sheridan's  telegrams-during  this  campaign  were  handed  to  Grant 
usually  as  we  sat  around  the  camp-fire  at  City  Point.  No  success  had 
cheered  him  at  the  East  for  months,  and  the  first  gleams  of  light  came 
from  Sheridan's  victories  in  the  valley.  As  Grant  read  out  these 
ringing  dispatches:  '  We  sent  them  whirling  through  Winchester'  ; 


204  GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN.. 

'  They  were  followed  on  a  jump  twenty-six  miles  ' ;  '  I  thought  I  best 
delay  here  one  day  and  settle  this  new.  cavalry  general,'  (referring  to 
Rosser),  his  voice  betrayed  how  welcome  was  the  news.  '  Keep  on/ 
he  replied,  k  and  your  good  work  will  cause  the  fall  of  Richmond.' ' 

Sheridan  writes  from  Strasburg :  "  The  people  here  [in  the  val- 
ley] are  getting  sick  of  the  war."  He  wrote  also  :  "  I'm  coming  back 
to  this  point."  As  he  moved  down  the  valley  after  the  raid,  Sheridan 
reported  :  "  I  was  not  followed  until  late  yesterday,  when  a  large  force 
of  cavalry  appeared  in  my  rear.  I  then  halted  my  command  to  give 
battle.  I  found  it  was  only  the  rebel  cavalry  commanded  by  Rosser, 
and  directed  Torbett  to  attack  them  and  finish  this  new  '  saviour  of  the 
valley.'  "  And  he  did  it  so  effectually  that  Rosser  has  ever  since  been 
explaining  why  he  was  so  thoroughly  thrashed.  Honors  and  recognition 
were  showered  upon  Sheridan  after  Winchester  and  Fisher's  Hill. 
Congress  passed  a  resolution  of  thanks  at  its  next  session  for  the  Valley 
Campaign.  The  victorious  general  was  made  a  brigadier-general  in 
the  regular  army. 

Torbett's  fight  with  Rosser  occurred  on  the  9th  of  October.  At 
the  first  charge  the  Confederates  broke  and  fled,  leaving  over  three 
hundred  prisoners,  a  dozen  guns,  and  nearly  fifty  wagons  in  our  hands. 
They  were  chased  twenty-six  miles. 

Three  days  later  Early  attempted  to  surprise  Sheridan,  who  had 
halted  near  Fisher's  Hill.  This  time  the  Confederates  were  so  severely 
chastised  that  it  was  supposed  they  would  remain  quiet  for  some  time. 
With  that  impression,  Sheridan  went  to  Washington  on  official  busi- 
ness, leaving  General  Wright  in  temporary  command  of  the  army. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


SNATCHING  VICTORY   FROM  THE  JAWS 
OF  DEFEAT. 

• 
LINCOLN'S   LITTLE    STORY  ABOUT   GENERAL   CASS  —  CHANGE   OF   THE  TROOPS 

—  MEDDLING  AT  WASHINGTON  WITH  GRANT'S  ORDERS  —  WRIGHT  SUR- 
PRISED AT  CEDAR  CREEK  —  ROUT  OF  THE  NINETEENTH  CORPS  —  SHERI- 
DAN'S RIDE  "TO  SAVE  THE  DAY"  —  DEFEATS  EARLY  AND  GORDON  —  WHAT 
HE  SAID  OF  HIS  VICTORY  —  THANKS  OF  PRESIDENT  AND  CONGRESS  —  PRO- 
MOTION IN  THE  REGULAR  ARMY  — THE  HORSE  HE  RODE. 

CONSIDERABLE  anxiety  had  prevailed  in  Washington  during  the  lat- 
ter of  Sheridan's  operations.  He  had  got  beyond  telegraphic  commu- 
nication. The  War  Department  feared  for  the  capital.  Halleck  feared 
that  the  little  soldier  might  seriously  propose  to  end  the  war  otherwise 
than  according  to  Jomini,  as  translated  by  "Old  Brains,"  while  the 
President  grew  anxious  for  Sheridan's  safety.  None  of  them  knew  the 
man  —  he  was  a  fighting  soldier,  who  did  his  "job"  with  the  same 
persistent  determination  that  he  would  have  bossed  a  railroad  contract. 
Mr.  Lincoln,  of  course,  had  a  story  to  tell.  He  was  afraid  that  Sheri- 
dan's hot  pursuit  had  been  a  little  like  that  of  General  Cass,  in  one  of 
our  Indian  wars.  Cass  was  pursuing  the  Indians  so  closely,  that  the 
first  thing  he  knew  he  found  himself  in  their  front  and  the  Indians 
were  pursuing  him.  Sheridan  might  have  got  on  the  other  side  of 
Early.  Mr.  Lincoln  feared  that  Early  was  behind  him.  Reinforce- 
ments might  be  sent  out  from  Richmond  to  enable  Early  to  meet 
and  beat  him.  Grant  says:  "I  replied  to  the  President  that  I  had 
taken  steps  to  prevent  Lee  from  sending  reinforcements  to  Early  by 
attacking  the  former  where  he  was." 

Sheridan  had  driven  the  enemy  out  of  the  valley  and  destroyed 
everything,  so  that  if  Early  came  back  he  would  have  to  bring  his 
provisions  with  him.  It  was  in  announcing  this  that  he  used  the  apt 
illustration  already  quoted,  of  the  crow  being  compelled  to  carry  its 
rations.  He  felt,  therefore,  he  did  not  need  so  large  a  force,  and  sent  to 


206  THE   LIFE  OF 

Grant,  asking  him  to  take  some  and  put  them  where  they  were  needed 
more.  This  Grant  did.  The  Sixth  Corps  was  ordered  to  the  James 
River.  Sheridan  then  repaired  the  rajlrtfad  up  the  valley  toward  the 
advanced  position  which  he  believed  could  be  held  with  a  small  force. 
Troops  were  sent  to  Washington,  by  way  of  Culpepper,  in  order  to 
watch  the  east  side  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  and  prevent  the  enemy  from 
getting  into  the  rear  of  Sheridan,  while  he  was  still  doing  his  work  of 
destruction. 

On  the  loth  of  October,  the  march  down  the  valley  was  again 
resumed ;  Early,  at  a  very  respectful  distance,  slowly  following. 
Sheridan  was  ordered,  however,  to  halt  by  Grant,  and  to  improve  the 
opportunity,  if  afforded  by  the  enemy's  having  been  sufficiently  weak- 
ened, tb  move  back  again  if  possible  and  cut  the  James  River  canal 
and  the  Virginia  Central  railroad.  This  order  had  to  go  through 
Washington,  where  it  was  intercepted,  and  when.  Sheridan  received 
what  seemed  to  be  a  statement  of  what  Grant  wished  him  to  do,  it 
was  something  entirely  different.  Halleck  informed  Sheridan  that  it 
was  Grant's  wish  for  him  to  hold  a  forward  position,  as  a  base  from 
which  to  act  against  Charlottesville  and  Gordonsville,  and  that  he 
should  fortify  and  provision  this  position.  Sheridan  objected  most 
decidedly.  Grant  then  telegraphed  him  on  the  I4th  of  October,  as 
follows  : 

MAJOR-GENERAL  SHERIDAN  : 

What  I  want,  is  for  you  to  threaten  the  Virginia  Central  rail- 
road and  the  James  River  canal,  in  the  manner  your  judgment  tells 
you  is  best,  holding  yourself  ready  to  advance,  if  the  enemy  draw  off 
their  forces.  If  you  make  the  enemy  hold  a  force  equal  to  your  own 
for  the  protection  of  those  roads,  it  will  accomplish  nearly  as  much  as 
their  destruction.  If  you  cannot  do  this,  then  the  next  best  thing  to  do 
is  to  send  here  all  the  force  you  can.  I  deem  a  good  cavalry  force  nec- 
essary for  your  offensive,  as  well  as  your  defensive  operations.  You 
need  not,  therefore,  send  more  than  one  division  of  cavalry. 

U.  S.  GRANT. 

Sheridan  was  at  Winchester,  having  returned  the  night  before  from 
Washington.  Upon  the  forenoon  of  the  I9th  of  October,  on  his  way 
to  his  headquarters,  he  learned  from  the  stream  of  stragglers,  the  news 
of  the  attack  by  Early  on  his  lines  at  Cedar  Creek,  and  the  partial 
rout  of  his  army  that  was  then  in  progress.  The  story  has  been  told 
by  many  pens,  but  the  most  compact  account  is  that  printed  in  White- 
law  Reid's  volume,  Ohio  in  the  War.  It  is  so  clear  and  direct,  yet 
comprehensive,  that  it  is  given  here  in  full : 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN.  207 

"  On  the  night  of  the  i8th  of  October,  while  Sheridan  was 
approaching  Winchester,  on  his  return,  Early  and  Longstreet  were 
stealthily  moving  out  from  Fisher's  Hill.  So  careful  and  minute  were 
their  arrangements  for  silence  on  the  march,  that  they  even  took  away 
the  canteens  from  their  men,  lest  their  rattle  against  the  bayonet-sheaths 
or  cartridge-boxes  should  be  heard.  Wright,  as  we  have  seen,  was 
apprehensive  about  his  right  flank.  His  disposition  of  the  entire 
cavalry  there  showed  it,  and  the  enemy  at  once  profited  by  the  dis- 
closure. They  moved  rapidly  to  the  opposite  flank.  Here  the  front 
was  scarcely  protected  at  all.  The  exultant  army  that  had  followed 
the  rebels  '  whirling  up  the  valley '  was  utterly  incredulous  as  to  the 
possibility  of  attack.  They  slept,  officers  and  men,  the  deep  slumber 
of  absolute  confidence.  Pickets  were  advanced  but  a  short  distance 
from  the  camp —  so  short  a  distance  that  the  rebel  column  crept  around 
them  within  six  hundred  yards  of  the  main  line.  Some  pickets  did 
report  the  sound  of  marching  in  the  darkness  on  their  front,  and  Gen- 
eral Crook  ordered  men  into  the  trenches ;  but  this  report  failed  to 
arouse  much  apprehension,  and  they  neglected  to  send  out  a  reconnais- 
sance. The  front  line  was  broken  here  and  there  by  regiments  sent 
out  for  picket  duty  —  even  these  gaps  were  unfilled. 

"  The  dawn  was  obscured  by  fog.  Through  this  suddenly  came 
bursting  the  wild  charging  yells  of  the  rebel  infantry  —  not  Early's 
often  beaten  troops  alone,  but  the  flower  of  the  Army  of  Northern 
Virginia.  The  extremity  of  Crook's  line,  taken  thus  by  surprise  in 
flank  and  rear,  was  doubled  up  in  confusion,  precisely  as,  a  few  weeks 
before,  Crook  had  himself  doubled  up  Early's  flank  at  Fisher's  Hill. 
The  enemy  was  into  the  trenches  before  all  the  muskets  of  the  defend- 
ers were  loaded  ;  the  movement  was  quick,  orderly,  forceful  on  the 
part  of  the  assailants  —  hesitating  and  bewildered  on  the  part  of  the 
confused  troops  thus  rudely  awaked  from  their  dreams  of  security.  In 
fifteen  minutes  the  struggle  was  practically  over.  The  rebels,  knowing 
perfectly  their  ground,  and  knowing,  moreover,  precisely  what  they 
wanted  to  do,  drove  forward  their  charging  columns  with  a  rapidity 
that  to  the  surprised  army  seemed  amazing.  The  Nineteenth  Corps 
next  gave  way  ;  next,  only  a  little  more  slowly,  the  Sixth.  Long  be- 
fore this  the  tide  of  runaways  had  swept  down  the  pike  as  far  as  Win- 
chester, twenty  miles  away.  The  camps  were  abandoned,  twenty-four 
pieces  of  artillery  were  lost,  and  the  whole  army  was  in  full  retreat  on 
Winchester.  Nearly  five  miles  down  the  valley  it  began  to  come 
together,  and  General  Wright  essayed  the  formation  of  a  defensive  line. 


208  THE  LIFE  OF 

He  was  presently  interrupted  by  his  chief,  who  '  here  took  the  matter 
in  hand.' 

"  General  Sheridan  had  arrived  at-Winchester  the  night  before,  on 
his  way  back  from  the  consultation  at  Washington,  to  which  he  had 
been  ordered.  In  the  morning  artillery  firing  was  heard,  but  it  was 
attributed  to  an  intended  reconnaissance,  and  nothing  was  thought  of  it. 
After  an  early  breakfast  Sheridan  mounted  and  trotted  quietly  through 
Winchester,  southward.  A  mile  from  the  town  the  first  fugitives  from 
the  lost  field  were  encountered.  He  instantly  gave  orders  to  park  the 
retreating  trains  on  either  side  of  the  road,  directed  the  greater  part  of 
his  escort  to  follow  as  best  it  could,  then,  with  only  twenty  cavalrymen 
accompanying  him,  he  struck  out  in  a  swinging  gallop  for  the  scene  of 
danger.  As  he  dashed  up  the  pike  the  crowds  of  stragglers  grew 
thicker.  He  reproached  none  ;  only,  swinging  his  cap,  with  a  cheery 
smile  for  all,  he  shouted  :  '  Face  the  other  way,  boys  ;  face  the  other 
way  !  We  are  going  back  to  our  camps  !  We  are  going  to  lick  them 
out  of  their  boots  !  '  The  wounded  raised  their  hoarse  voices  to  cheer 
as  her.passed,  and  the  masses  of  fugitives  turned  and  followed  him  to 
the  front.  As  he  rode  into  the  forming  lines,  the  men  quickened  their 
pace  back  to  the  ranks,  and  everywhere  glad  cheers  went  up.  '  Boys, 
this  never  should  have  happened  if  I  had  been  here.*  he  exclaimed  to 
one  and  another  regiment,  '  I  tell  you  it  never  should  have  happened. 
And  now  we  are  going  back  to  our  camps.  We  are  going  to  get  a 
twist  on  them  ;  we'll  get  the  tightest  twist  on  them  yet  that  ever  you 
saw.  We'll  have  all  those  camps  and  cannon  back  again.'  Thus  he 
rode  along  the  lines,  rectified  the  formation,  cheered  and  animated  the 
soldiers.  Presently  there  grew  up  across  that  pike  as  compact  a  body 
of  infantry  and  cavalry  as  that  which,  a  month  before,  had  sent  the 
enemy  'whirling  through  Winchester.'  His  men  had  full  faith  in  'the 
twist '  he  was  '  going  to  get '  on  the  victorious  foe  ;  his  presence  was 
inspiration  ;  his  commands  were  victory. 

"  While  the  line  was  thus  being  reestablished,  he  was  in  momentary 
expectation  of  attack.  Weight's  Sixth  Corps  was  some  distance  in 
the  rear.  One  staff  officer  after  another  was  sent  after  it.  Finally 
Sheridan  himself  dashed  down  to  hurry  it  up  ;  then  back  to  watch 
it  going  into  position.  As  he  thus  stood,  looking  off  from  the  left,  he 
saw  the  enemy's  columns  once  more  moving  up.  Hurried  warning 
was  sent  to  the  Nineteenth  Corps,  on  which  it  was  evident  the  attack 
would  fall.  By  this  time  it  was  after  3  o'clock. 

"  The  Nineteenth  Corps,  no  longer  taken  by  surprise,  repulsed  the 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 


209 


THE  STONE  BRIDGE  AT  FISHER'S  HILL, 

WHERE,  ON  SHERIDAN'S  RALLYING  THE  UNION  ARMY,  OCTOBER  19,  1864,  A  LARGE  BODY  OF 
CONFEDERATE  PRISONERS  WAS  TAKEN. 

enemy's  onset.  '  Thank  God  for  that,'  said  Sheridan  gayly.  '  Now 
tell  General  Emory  if  they  attack  him  again  to  go  after  them  and  to 
follow  them  up.  We'll  get  the  tightest  twist  on  them  pretty  soon  they 
ever  saw.'  The  men  heard  and  believed  him  ;  the  demoralization  of 
defeat  was  gone.  "But  he  still  waited.  Word  had  been  sent  in  from  the 
cavalry,  of  danger  from  a  heavy  body  moving  on  his  flank.  He  doubted 
it,  and  at  last  determined  to  run  the  risk.  At  4  o'clock  the  orders  went 
out :  '  The  whole  line  will  advance.  The  Nineteenth  Corps  will  move 
in  connection  with  the  Sixth.  The  right  of  the  Nineteenth  will  swing 
toward  the  left.' 

"  The  enemy  lay  behind  stone  fences,  and  where  these  failed,  breast- 
works of  rails  eked  out  his  line.     For  a  little  he  held  his  position  firmly. 

14 


210  THE  LIFE  OF 

His  left  overlapped  Sheridan's  right  and  seeing  this  advantage  he  bent  it 
down  to  renew  the  attack  in  flank.  At  this  critical  moment  Sheridan 
ordered  a  charge  of  General  McWi-lKartis'  brigade  against  the  angle 
thus  caused  in  the  rebel  line.  It  forced  its  way  through,  and  the  rebel 
flanking  party  was  cut  off.  Ouster's  cavalry  was  sent  swooping  down 
upon  it.  It  broke,  and  fled  or  surrendered,  according  to  the  agility  of 
the  individuals.  Simultaneously  the  whole  line  charged  along  the 
front ;  the  rebel  line  was  crowded  back  to  the  creek  ;  the  difficulties  of 
the  crossing  embarrassed  it,  and  as  the  victorious  ranks  swept  up  it 
broke  in  utter  confusion. 

"  Custer  charged  down  in  the  fast  gathering  darkness  to  the  west 
of  the  pike,  Deven  to  the  east  of  it,  and  on  either  flank  of  the  fleeing 
rout  they  flung  themselves.  Nearly  all  the  rebel  transportation  was 
captured,  the  camps  and  artillery  were  regained  ;  up  to  Fisher's  Hill 
the  road  was  jammed  with  artillery,  caissons,  and  ambulances  ;  prisoners 
came  streaming  back  faster  than  the  provost  marshal  could  provide  for 
them.  It  was  the  end  of  Early's  army ;  the  end  of  campaigning  in 
the  beautiful  Valley  of  the  Shenandoah." 

The  scenes  were  startling,  amusing,  pathetic,  humorous,  and  heroic, 
—  all  combined.  Custer  threw  his  arms  around  Sheridan's  neck,  as  he 
rode  up,  and  kissed  him  in  the  face  of  the  army.  "  Little  Phil  "  was 
the  supreme  incarnation  of  war.  Some  of  his  oaths  were  more  pictur- 
esque than  those  of  Homer's  heroes.  Men  shouted,  ran,  screamed,  and 
cried,  as  he  came  thundering  along  the  pike  with  waving  flag  over  his 
head.  The  Honorable  A.  F.  Walker,  of  the  Inter-state  Commerce  Com- 
mission, has  given  to  our  war  literature  an  admirable  little  volume  on 
the  history  of  the  Vermont  brigade  with  which  he  served.  They  were 
at  Cedar  Creek.  The  brigade,  says  Mr.  Walker,  while  sulkily  waiting 
for  the  re-formation  of  the  army,  "heard  cheers  behind  us  on  the  pike. 
We  were  astounded.  There  we  stood,  driven  four  miles  already, 
quietly  waiting  for  what  might  be  further  and  immediate  disaster,  while 
far  in  the  rear  we  heard  the  stragglers  and  hospital  bummers  and  the 
gunless  artillery-men,  actually  cheering  as  though  a  victory  had  been 
won.  We  could  hardly  believe  our  ears." 

The  explanation  soon  came,  horse  and  man,  but  four  miles  away 
from  the  battle-field.  "  As  the  sturdy,  fiery  Sheridan,  on  his  sturdy, 
fiery  steed,  flecked  with  foam  from  his  two  hours'  mad  galloping, 
wheeled  from  the  pike  and  dashed  down  the  line,  our  division  also 
broke  forth  into  the  most  tumultuous  applause.  .... 

"  Such  a  scene  as  his  presence  produced,  and  such  emotions  as  it 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  211 

awoke,  cannot  be  realized  once  in  a  century.  All  outward  manifesta- 
tions were  as  enthusiastic  as  men  are  capable  of  exhibiting ;  cheers 
seemed  to  come  from  throats  of  brass,  and  caps  were  thrown  to  the  tops 
of  the  scattering  oaks  ;  but  beneath  and  yet  superior  to  these  noisy 
demonstrations,  there  was  in  every  heart  a  revulsion  of  feeling  and  a 
pressure  of  emotion  beyond  description.  No  more  doubt  or  chance 
for  doubt  existed ;  we  were  safe,  perfectly  and  unconditionally  safe, 
and  every  man  knew  it." 

"  Forward  "  was  at  once  the  order.  Mr.  Walker's  account  is  at  least 
animating.  He  says  : 

"  At  the  commencement  of  its  advance,  the  brigade  met  a  shallow 
mill-pond  that  had  not  been  noticed  in  the  forest,  in  some  way  floundered 
through,  rushed  up  the  hill  to  the  rebel  works,  then  turned  to  the  left, 
and  in  a  confused,  delirious  mass,  hurried  on  as  best  it  might  after  the 
scattering  enemy.  Guns  were  fired  wildly  into  the  air,  and  reloaded  as 
the  soldiers  ran  ;  captured  cannon  were  wheeled  about  and  discharged  at 
the  panic-stricken  foe  in  mad  salute  for  our  victory.  General  Sheridan, 
with  long  black  streamers  waving  from  his  hat,  joined  our  division,  ex- 
claiming, '  Run,  boys,  run  ;  don't  wait  to  form  ;  don't  let  'em  stop' ;  and 
when  some  one  answered,  'We  can't  run,  we're  tired  out,'  his  reply  was 
perhaps  unmilitary,  but  certainly,  under  the  circumstances,  judicious  : 
'  If  you  can't  run  then  holler,'  and  thus  the  wild  pursuit  was  continued 
until  we  reached  the  turnpike  where  it  crosses  the  very  summit  of 
Fisher's  Hill. 

"  The  defeat  was  utter  and  decisive,  so  far  as  the  Shenandoah  Valley 
was  concerned.  Its  secret  was  simply  Sheridan's  personal  magnetism 
and  all-conquering  energy.  He  felt  no  doubt,  he  would  submit  to  no 
defeat,  and  he  took  his  army  with  him  as  on  a  whirlwind." 

Colonel  Herbert  E.  Hill,  of  Somerville,  went  all  through  the  Shen- 
andoah Valley  Campaign  of  General  Sheridan,  and  was  close  by  u  Gal- 
lant Phil"  at  the  battle  of  Cedar  Creek,  made  famous  by  Sheridan's 
memorable  ride  from  Winchester  to  the  relief  of  his  routed  army. 
Colonel  Hill  has  written  several  articles  upon  the  Shenandoah  Valley 
Campaign,  and  as  some  of  his  statements  were  disputed  he  appealed  to 
Sheridan  for  the  confirmation  of  his  stories.  He  received  in  reply  two 
dispatches,  which  are  of  great  historical  interest,  as  they  settle  forever 
some  mooted  points.  Some  have  even  seen  fit  to  question  whether 
there  ever  was  such  a  thing  as  his  ride  from  Winchester.  Historians 
have  disputed  each  other  regarding  the  time  when  he  arrived,  the  horse 
he  rode,  the  number  of  guns  captured,  etc.  These  points  are  all  settled 


212  THE  LIFE  OF 

by  the  man  who  knew  the  most  about  the  matter,  and  they  corrob- 
orate Colonel  Hill's  accounts  in  every  particular.  Here  are  copies  of 
the  dispatches  in  question  : 

CHICAGO,  Oct.  17,  1881. 
COLONEL  HERBERT  E.  HILL,  Boston,  Mass.  : 

Between  6  and  7  o'clock  on  Monday,  October  I9th,  the  officer  on 
picket  at  Winchester  reported  to  me,  while  I  was  in  bed  at  the  house 
of  Colonel  Edwards,  the  commanding  officer,  the  sound  of  scattering 
artillery  shots.  These  I  supposed  to  be  made  by  Grover's  division  of 
the  Nineteenth  Corps,  which  was  to  have  made  a  reconnaissance  that 
morning.  My  black  horse  "Winchester"  was  saddled,  as  well  as  the 
horses  of  my  staff  officers,  and  we  started  about  8  o'clock,  passing 
through  the  main  street  of  Winchester. 

On  reaching  the  southern  suburbs  of  the  town  the  sound  of  artil- 
lery indicated  a  battle  to  me  unmistakably.  We  walked  leisurely  until 
we  reached  Mill  Creek,  half  a  mile  or  so  from  the  town,  trying  to 
determine  by  the  sound  whether  the  firing  was  coining  toward  us  or 
receding,  and  after  crossing  Mill  Creek  and  rising  a  little  bluff  on  the 
south  side  saw  the  heads  of  the  troops  retreating,  coming  rapidly  to 
the  rear.  I  at  once  ordered  a  halt,  directing  that  the  train  be  stopped 
and  parked  at  Mill  Creek,  and  sent  orders  that  the  brigade  in  garrison 
at  Winchester  be  stretched  across  the  country  and  all  stragglers 
stopped. 

Then  taking  twenty  men  from  the  escort  I  rode  rapidly  on,  as 
nearly  parallel  to  the  valley  pike  as  the  crowd  of  stragglers  would  per- 
mit, until  I  struck  Getty's  division  of  the  Sixth  Corps,  three-quarters 
of  a  mile  north  of  Middletown,  reaching  there  a  little  before  TO 
o'clock,  A.  M.  I  rode  my  black  horse,  "  Winchester,"  until  just  before 
the  final  attack  at  4  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  when  I  changed  to  my 
gray  horse,  which  I  rode  until  the  battle  was  over: 

P.  H.  SHERIDAN, 
Lieutenant-  General  United  States  Army. 

CHICAGO,  Oct.  18,  1881. 
COLONEL  HERBERT  E.  HILL,  Boston,  Mass. 

The  enemy  captured  from  our  troops  in  the  morning  twenty-four 
pieces  of  artillery.  These  were  recaptured  and  twenty-four  more  from 
the  enemy  in  the  afternoon,  making  forty-eight  pieces.  Ten  battle- 
flags  were  also  captured  from  the  enemy.  The  black  horse,  "Win- 
chester," died  October  2,  1878,  and  is  set  up  on  exhibition  at  the  Mili- 
tary Institute,  Governor's  Island.  The  gray  horse  was  burned  up  in 
the  Chicago  fire,  October  9,  1871. 

P.  H.  SHERIDAN, 
Lieutenant-  General  United  States  Army. 

Colonel  Hill  has  preserved  these  dispatches  and  some  autograph 
letters  from  General  Sheridan  with  the  greatest  care.  The  Eighth 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  213 

Vermont  Regiment,  of  which  Colonel  Hill  was  a  member,  was  in  the 
brunt  of  the  fight  at  Cedar  Creek.  When  Sheridan  arrived  from  Win- 
chester he  found  his  army  disorganized  and  presenting  only  a  division 
front  to  the  enemy.  The  divisions  were  ranged  back  and  to  one  side 
of  each  other  in  echelon,  as  it  is  termed  in  military  parlance,  a  form 
which  is  best  represented  by  the  steps  of  a  staircase.  He  immediately 
ordered  the  rear  division  to  the  front,  and  presented  an  unbroken  line  to 
the  attack  of  the  enemy.  The  Eighth  Vermont  was  on  the  right  of 
their  line,  and  here  Sheridan  took  up  his  position.  This  regiment 
suffered  as  no  other  in  the  army.  Out  of  164  men  who  went  into 
action,  no  were  lost  by  death  or  wounds;  thirteen  out  of  sixteen 
commissioned  officers  were  killed,  three  color-bearers  were  shot  dead, 
and  a  fourth  afterwards  died  of  his  wounds.  For  their  conspicuous 
gallantry,  Sheridan  wrote  them  a  letter  of  thanks  over  his  own  sig- 
nature. 

The  only  monuments  which  have  been  erected  upon  the  battle-fields 
in  the  Shenandoah  Valley  were  set  up  to  mark  the  spot  where  this  regi- 
ment fought,  and  they  were  both  the  gifts  of  Colonel  Hill. 

"The  great  secret  of  Sheridan's  strength  and  popularity  with  his 
men,"  according  to  the  colonel,  "  was  that  he  never  ordered  his  men  to 
go  where  he  would  not  lead  them.  He  was  perfectly  fearless,  and  they 
had  perfect  confidence  in  him  and  would  follow  him  into  the  jaws  of 
death.  He  was  said  to  be  a  profane  man,  but  it  only  showed  his 
earnestness,  and  was  more  in  the  nature  of  an  invocation  to  the  Deity 
than  profanity.  He  had  a  thorough  plan  for  every  battle,  and  his  men 
soon  learned  to  appreciate  and  see  the  importance  of  every  movement 
as  bearing  on  the  whole  scheme  of  the  fight.  When  he  appeared  on 
the  field  after  his  great  ride  he  appeared  to  the  enemy,  to  use  a  scriptural 
expression,  like  a  great  light  in  a  dark  valley." 

General  Sheridan,  speaking  of  the  Valley  Campaign  and  of  the 
battle  and  victory  at  Cedar  Creek,  said  : 

"  This  battle  [Cedar  Creek]  practically  ended  the  campaign  in  the 
Shenandoah  Valley.  When  it  opened  we  found  our  enemy  boastful  and 
confident,  unwilling  to  acknowledge  that  the  soldiers  of  the  Union  were 
their  equals  in  courage  and  manliness.  When  it  closed  with  Cedar 
Creek,  this  impression  had  been  removed  from  his  mind,  and  gave 
place  to  good  sense  and  a  strong  desire  to  quit  fighting.  The  very  best 
troops  of  the  Confederacy  had  not  only  been  defeated,  but  had  been 
routed  in  successive  engagements  until  their  spirit  was  destroyed.  In 
obtaining  these  results,  however,  our  loss  in  officers  and  men  was 


214  THE  LIFE  OF 

severe.  Practically  all  territory  north  of  the  James  River  now  belonged 
to  us,  and  the  holding  of  the  lines  about  Petersburg  and  Richmond 
must  have  been  embarrassing,  and  invite  the  question  of  good  military 
judgment." 

At  the  next  session  of  Congress,  which  followed  close  upon  the 
heels  of  the  Cedar  Creek  rout,  a  concurrent  resolution  of  thanks  was 
voted  unanimously  to  General  Sheridan  and  his  command. 

-No  account  of  this  campaign  can  be  completed  without  a  reference 
to  "  Rienzi,"  the  famous  charger  which  carried  Sheridan  "  all  the  way 
from  Winchester"  "  to  save  the  day"  at  Cedar  Creek.  "  Rienzi,"  or 
"  Winchester,"  as  he  was  called  by  the  general  after  the  battle  at  that 
place,  died  at  Chicago,  Illinois,  in  October,  1878,  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
one  years.  His  remains  were  sent  to  a  taxidermist  at  Rochester,  New 
York,  and  after  being  skillfully  mounted  were  presented  by  the  general 
to  the  Military  Institute  for  exhibition  at  their  museum  at  Governor's 
Island,  New  York.  Here  the  steed  of  that  memorable  ride  to  Win- 
chester can  still  be  seen,  looking  as  natural  as  life,  and  is  the  object 
of  the  greatest  interest  to  the  daily  visitors  to  the  island. 

The  damage  done  to  the  enemy  in  the  valley  during  this  memora- 
ble struggle  is  summed  up  in  army  reports  as  follows : 

Barns  destroyed,  630,  valued  at  $1,593,000;  mills,  47,  $314,000; 
tons  9f  hay,  3,445,  $103,607  ;  bushels  of  wheat,  410,742,  $1,025,105  ; 
saw-mills,  4,  $8,000;  furnaces,  3,  $45,000;  woolen  mills,  i,  $10,000; 
acres  of  corn,  515,  $18,000;  bushels  of  oats,  750,  $750;  cattle  driven 
off,  1,347,  $3°>38°;  sheep,  1,231,  $6,340;  swine,  725,  $8,000;  barrels 
of  flour,  560,  $6,720 ;  tons  of  straw,  255,  $2,550 ;  tons  of  fodder,  272, 
$2,720;  tanneries,  2,  $4,000;  wagons  loaded  with  flour,  2,  $500; 
railroad  depots,  2,  $3,000;  locomotives,  i,  $10,000;  box  cars,  3, 
$1,500;  total,  $3,193,172. 

The  country  was  wild  with  delight.  The  President  and  Secretary 
of  War  shared  the  common  enthusiasm.  The  latter  seeking  some  way 
of  honoring  the  victor,  conceived  the  idea  of  appointing  him  major- 
general  in  the  regular  army.  Then,  as  General  McClellan  had  just 
resigned  his  commission,  he  having  been  nominated  by  the  Democrats 
on  the  platform  declaration  "  that  the  war  was  a  failure,"  Mr.  Stanton 
decided  that  Sheridan's  new  commission  should  date  from  that  of  Mc- 
Clellan's  resignation,  November  8,  1864.  A  general  order  was  issued 
announcing  Major-General  Sheridan's  promotion  to  the  same  rank 
that  he  held  in  the  volunteer  service,  and  that  his  commission  was  made 
to  fill  the  vacancy  caused  by  the  retirement  of  George  B.  McClellan. 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN.  215 

In  order  to  still  further  emphasize  the  feelings  which  dictated  this 
appointment,  the  Assistant  Secretary  of  War.  Charles  A.  Dana,  was 
sent  by  the  President's  orders  to  present  the  commission  in  person. 
Mr.  Dana  has  recently  talked  of  his  visit  to  the  valley.  Noticing  the 
affection  of  Sheridan's  men  for  him,  Dana  said  :  "General,  how  is  this  ; 
these  men  seem  to  have  a  special  affection  for  you,  more  than  I  have 
ever  seen  displayed  toward  any  other  officer ;  what  is  the  reason  ? " 

"Well,"  said  Sheridan,  "  I  think  I  can  tell  you.  I  always  fight  in 
the  front  rank  myself.  I  was  long  ago  convinced  that  it  wouldn't  do 
for  a  commanding  general  to  stay  in  the  rear  of  the  troops  and  carry 
on  battle  with  paper  orders,  as  they  do  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 
These  men  all  know  that  where  it  is  the  hottest  there  I  am,  and  they 
like  it,  and  that  is  the  reason  they  like  me." 

In  the  same  conversation,  Sheridan  declared  emphatically  that  it 
was  all  nonsense  about  a  man's  not  being  afraid  under  fire.  He 
asserted  that  he  always  was,  and  that  the  only  reason  he  did  not 
turn  and  run  was  that  his  mind  had  control  of  his  body  and  its  fears. 

Sheridan's  own  simple  and  modest  dispatch  announcing  this  great 
victory,  snatched  from  the  jaws  of  defeat,  is  only  needed  to  complete 
the  story  : 

"I  have  the  honor  to  report  that  my  army  at  Cedar  Creek  was 
attacked  this  morning  before  daylight,  and  my  left  was  turned  and  driven 
in  confusion.  In  fact,  most  of  the  line  was  driven  in  confusion,  with 
the  loss  of  twenty  pieces  of  artillery.  I  hastened  from  Winchester, 
where  I  was  on  my  return  from  Washington,  and  found  the  armies 
between  Middletown  and  Newtown,  having  been  driven  back  about  four 
miles.  I  here  took  the  affair  in  hand  and  quickly  united  the  corps, 
formed  a  compact  line  of  battle  just  in  time  to  repulse  an  attack  of  the 
enemy  which  was  handsomely  done  at  about  I  p.  M.  At  3  P.  M.,  after 
some  changes  of  the  cavalry  from  the  left  to  the  right,  I  attacked  with 
great  vigor,  capturing,  according  to  the  last  report,  forty-three  pieces 
of  artillery,  with  very  many  prisoners.  I  do  not  know  yet  the  number 
of  my  casualties  or  the  losses  of  the  enemy." 

Mr.  Lincoln,  in  reply  to  Sheridan's  dispatch  announcing  the  vic- 
tory, wrote  Sheridan  as  follows  : 

"  With  great  pleasure  I  tender  you  and  your  great  army  the  thanks 
of  the  nation,  and  my  own  personal  admiration  and  gratitude  for  the 
month's  operations  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  and  especially  for  the 
splendid  work  of  October  I9th." 


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CHAPTER  XVIII. 


GORDON'S  MORNING  SURPRISE  "AT 
CEDAR  CREEK. 

GORDON  UNDER  EARLY — A  DISTINGUISHED  CONFEDERATE  SOLDIER — AN  INTER- 
VIEW ABOUT  CEDAR  CREEK  — COMMANDING  EWELL's  OLD  CORPS  —  HOW 
HE  PLANNED  THE  ATTACK  ON  WRIGHT  —  TURNING  OUR  FLANK  SUCCESS- 
FULLY—  ROUT1  OF  THE  EIGHTH  CORPS  — EARLY's  FOLLY  —  DONE  ENOUGH 
FOR  ONE  DAY  —  SHERIDAN'S  ARRIVAL  —  A  UNION  VICTORY. 

ONE  of  the  most  notable  of  soldiers  produced  by  the  Confederacy 
is  the  present  governor  of  Georgia,  formerly  a  United  States  Senator 
from  that  state  —  John  B.  Gordon,  who  at  the  time  of  Lee's  surrender 
had  attained  the  rank  of  lieutenant-general.  General  Gordon  is  one 
of  the  few  Southern  officers  who  obtained  and  held  distinguished  rank 
in  their  army  from  civil  life.  The  general  himself  stands  first  among 
that  few.  Senator  Wade  Hampton,  of  South  Carolina,  General  Mahone, 
of  Virginia,  and  Representative  Wheeler,  of  Alabama,  are  still  living. 
Forest  and  Morgan  as  cavalry  leaders,  Price  as  a  corps  commander,  of 
those  who  are  dead,  count  all  whose  names  will  be  held  in  military 
esteem.  Of  these  Mahone  is  the  only  one  who  had  any  military  train- 
ing, he  having  graduated  as  an  engineer  at  the  Virginia  Military 
Academy.  General  Gordon,  however,  was  easily  first  among  the  few. 
In  an  interview  with  Colonel  Burr  since  General  Sheridan's  death, 
which  has  been  published  in  a  Boston  paper,*  Governor  Gordon 
gives  a  number  of  such  interesting  details  of  the  Valley  Campaign  of 
1864,  as  well  as  confirms  so  strongly  the  extraordinary  effect  at  Cedar 
Creek  of  Sheridan's  arrival  and  personality  on  the  field,  and  among  his 
already  defeated  troops,  that  it  is  deemed  proper  to  reproduce  the 
account  in  these  pages  as  a  positive  and  valuable  contribution  to  the 
life  and  actions  of  General  Sheridan.  The  generosity  of  Gordon's 
mentality  is  clearly  shown  in  his  frank  and  open  admiration  of  his 
whilom  enemy. 

*Boston  Herald,  August  19,  1888. 


218  THE  LIFE  OF 

The  interview  occurred  at  Gettysburg.  In  response  to  the  remark 
that  had  his  (Gordon's)  suggestions  been^  carried  out  by  Early,  even 
Sheridan  could  not  have  "saved  the  day"  on  that  memorable  i9th 
of  October,  1864,  at  Cedar  Creek,  the  ex-Confederate  general  saidr 
after  remarking  that  he  was  a  corps  commander  under  Early : 

"  Yes,  the  plan  was  mine  wholly,  and  so  was  the  conduct  of  the 
fight  up  to  a  certain  point.  If  my  plan  had  been  carried  out  there 
would  never  have  been  any  4  Sheridan's  ride.' 

"We  felt  the  vast  importance  of  success  and  we  started  in  to  win  it. 
We  had  good  men,  and,  in  most  respects,  we  were  well  organized  and 
equipped.  In  the  Shenandoah  Valley  we  were  among  as  good  friends 
as  the  Southern  cause  could  boast. 

"We  swept  down  the  valley  and  whipped  Lew  Wallace  on  the 
Monocacy,  and  were  only  a  little  too  late  for  capturing  Washington, 
while  a  great  career  seemed  opened  to  our  army.  We  could  not  quite  get 
the  Federal  capital.  As  we  moved  off  from  Washington  two  splendid 
corps  were  immediately  put  under  Sheridan.  We  had  a  great  deal  of 
confidence  in  ourselves,  with  a  clear  field,  and  the  army  was  in  good 
spirits.  Across  the  Potomac  we  stopped  to  rest  and  to  gather  forage 
and  food.  We  also  did  some  recruiting.  Sheridan  attacked  us  at  Win- 
chester and  we  were  routed.  It  was  the  first  battle  we  lost  in  the  valley. 
Indeed,  before  that  we  had  not  even  had  a  check  of  any  kind,  having 
been  enabled  to  live  off  the  country,  and  even  to  forward  supplies  to 
Richmond. 

"When  Sheridan  came  up  in  the  valley  our  troops  were  very  much 
scattered.  This,  of  course,  because  it  was  more  convenient  to  feed 
them  in  that  way,  and  we  had  not  gotten  well  in  line  -when  we  were 
plunged  into  the  midst  of  battle.  The  Federal  assault  was  confident 
and  impetuous,  especially  that  of  the  Nineteenth  Corps,  and  we  were  in 
no  condition  to  resist  it.  One  division  after  another  broke,  and  when 
the  sun  went  down  on  the  evening  of  the  I9th  of  September  the  Federal 
victory  was  complete.  We  had  been  beaten  in  detail.  The  attack  was 
too  sudden  to  enable  us  to  consolidate  our  forces  and  use  them  to  the 
best  advantage,  and  we  were  shattered  and  demoralized. 

"Dejected  and  broken,  we  moved  down  the  valley  to  Fisher's  Hill, 
where  we  had  a  very  strong  position.  There  we  stopped  and  recruited, 
and  tried  to  repair  the  damage  which  had  been  done.  Our  soldiers 
were  very  much  disheartened,  however.  The  transformation  from  a 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  219 

hopeful  and  advancing  army  to  a  beaten  and  retreating  one  was  too  great. 
Three  days  later  we  were  attacked  in  our  position  and  again  defeated. 

"For  nearly  a  month  there  was  a  respite,  and  then  came  Cedar 
Creek.  For  the  time  being  we  won  one  of  the  great  victories  of  the 
war.  Every  detail  of  the  movement  was  carefully  planned,  and  for 
twelve  hours  it  was  supremely  successful.  I  had  gone  the  day  before, 
October  i8th,  to  the  top  of  what  is  called  Massanutten  Mountain,  where 
we  had  a  signal  corps  stationed,  and  had  taken  observations  through  the 
field-glasses.  There  was  a  magnificent  bird's-eye  view.  The  Shen- 
andoah  was  the  silver  bar  between  us.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the 
river  I  could  distinctly  see  the  red-cuffs  of  the  artillerists.  Why,  I  had 
so  good  a  view  that  I  could  see  the  sore  spots  on  the  horses'  backs  in 
your  camp.  In  front  of  Belle  Grove  mansion  I  could  see  members 
of  Sheridan's  staff  coming  and  going.  I  could  not  imagine  a  better 
opportunity  for  making  out  an  enemy's  position  and  strength.  I  could 
even  count  the  men  who  were  there.  The  camp  was  splendidly 
exposed  to  me.  I  marked  the  position  of  the  guns,  and  the  pickets 
walking  to  and  fro,  and  observed  where  the  cavalry  was  placed. 

"It  flashed  upon  me  instantly  that  the  expectation  of  General  Sher- 
idan was  that  we  would  attack  him  on  his  right,  which  was  the  only 
place  supposed  possible  for  the  advance  of  any  army.  His  left  was 
protected  by  the  Shenandoah  ;  at  this  point  the  mountain  was  very  pre- 
cipitous, and  the  river  ran  around  it.  There  was  no  road  at  all,  and 
the  point  was  guarded  only  by  a  mere  cavalry  picket. 

"  I  saw  our  opportunity  in  an  instant,  and  I  told  the  officers  present 
that  if  General  Early  would  permit  me  to  move  my  corps  (I  was  then 
commanding  EwelPs  corps)  down  to  this  point,  I  could  get  around  the 
mountain.  Both  sides  believed  this  was  impossible,  but  I  felt  sure  that 
it  could  be  done.  My  plan  was  to  dismount  our  cavalry,  attack  Sheri- 
dan's cavalry  when  dismounted,  and  keep  them  from  moving.  I  knew 
that  if  we  could  do  this  we  would  gain  a  great  victory. 

"None  of  my  brother  officers  had  at  first  much  confidence  in  the 
plan.  When  I  was  on  Massanutten,  the  members  of  General  Early's 
staff  who  were  with  me  were  utterly  incredulous.  I  told  them  that  if  I 
was  allowed  to  carry  out  my  plan  we  could  annihilate  Sheridan's  army 
and  drive  him  pell-mell  out  of  the  valley,  and  raise  the  spirits  of  our 
people  beyond  measure." 

In  explaining  the  details,  General  Gordon  says:  "There  was  a 
back  road  running  from  our  position  on  Fisher's  Hill  to  the  Federal 


220  THE  LIFE  OF 

right,  where  the  cavalry  was  posted.  I  expected  to  deceive  the  Fed- 
erals by  Lomax'  attack.  It  would  be  dark  still,  and  they  could  not 
distinguish  our  dismounted  cavalry  from"  infantry,  and  would  believe 
that  our  main  attack  was  there  on  their  right.  This  would  leave  us 
free  to  operate  around  their  left. 

"  General  Early  acted  promptly  after  he  understood  the  project. 
The  plan  was  submitted,  talked  over,  and  finally  substantially  agreed 
upon.  I  took  my  command,  having,  ordered  them  to  leave  their  can- 
teens, sabres,  and  everything  that  could  make  a' noise  behind.  I  knew 
that  our  only  dependence  was  in  absolute  secrecy,  and  in  a  complete 
surprise.  After  inspecting  things  with  my  staff,  I  found  I  could  get  my 
men  around  the  mountain  by  putting  them  in  single  file.  I  discovered 
still  another  place  where  the  horses  could  be  led,  although  the  venture 
would  be  exceedingly  dangerous.  Still,  the  expedition  was  essentially 
one  of  great  peril,  and  more  or  less  danger  was  of  little  consequence. 

"  Sharp  men  often  leave  a  loop-hole  ;  and  as  Sheridan,  or  Wright,  of 
the  Sixth  Corps,  who  was  in  actual  command,  had  never  through  their 
scouts  discovered  this  narrow,  country  road,  or  did  not  deem  it  possible 
to  move  an  army  by  it,  we  were  left  to  complete  our  surprise  unmo- 
lested. The  event  was  taking  things  as  they  were,  not  only  possible 
but  actual,  and  we  did  what  none  of  your  people  for  a  moment  dreamed 
of  as  possible.  Early  in  the  night  I  began  to  move  my  men  around  the 
mountain.  My  object  was  to  have  them  already  for  an  attack  before 
daylight  in  the  morning.  The  movement  took  all  night.  All  through 
the  hours  of  darkness  the  silent  figures  moved  to  their  position  near  the 
sleeping  enemy.  An  entire  brigade  of  cavalry  was  moved  in  this 
way,  and  reached  the  point  in  about  one  and  a  half  hours  in  advance 
of  the  men.  I  instructed  the  cavalry  that  as  soon  as  I  got  ready  to 
move  they  were  to  proceed  in  my  front,  rush  across  the  river,  open  on 
the  cavalry  pickets,  and  capture  them  if  possible.  If  they  could  not 
do  this,  they  were  to  put  their  horses  to  full  speed,  ride  right  through 
the  Federal  camp,  firing  their  pistols  to  the  right  and  to  the  left  as  they 
passed  through,  and  make  directly  for  Sheridan's  headquarters  and 
capture  him. 

"  At  that  time  I  did  not  know  that  Sheridan  was  absent  and  Wright 
in  command.'  I  had  selected  his  house  from  the  flags  which  floated  from 
it  and  the  couriers  who  were  constantly  going  in  and  out.  My  orders 
were  :  <  Go  right  through  the  Federal  camp  with  your  command  before 
daylight  and  directly  to  General  Sheridan's  headquarters.  Capture 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  221 

him  ! '  I  told  them  not  to  try  to  take  any  prisoners,  not  to  mind  anything, 
but  every  mounted  man  was  to  press  straight  toward  Belle  Grove. 
We,  with  the  infantry,  would  take  care  of  what  was  behind.  I  knew 
very  well  that  the  little  fighting  or  capturing  they  could  do  would  be  of 
little  account  compared  with  the  prize  they  were  expected  to  get.  In 
order  to  guard  against  a  premature  onset  at  some  point,  we  compared 
watches  and  arranged  the  times  of  attack.  In  fact,  the  actual  demon- 
stration was  made  in  full  accordance  with  my  plan  of  action. 

"  My  signal  was  obeyed  exactly.  On  the  morning  of  the  I9th,  just 
about  daylight,  we  fired  three  or  four  shots.  Away  the  Federal  pickets 
went,  with  our  cavalry  brigade  after  them.  I  rushed  across,  wading 
the  river  with  my  whofe  corps  of  infantry.  We  went  with  a  rush  and 
double-quick.  Before  starting  I  had  selected  the  house  on  the  road 
at  which  the  head  of  my  column  should  stop.  It  was  a  white  house  at 
the  turn  of  the  road,  farther  down  toward  the  river,  and  was  on  the 
flank  of  the  enemy's  line.  As  soon  as  I  got  there  I  was  in  position  and 
I  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  close  up  in  front  and  move.  Dashing  for- 
ward with  one  brigade,  we  plunged  into  the  enemy's  camp  and  found 
the  men  asleep.  Many  of  them  never  awoke  in  this  world.  We  went 
right  through  them  and  shot  every  one  in  flight.  The  cavalry  had 
reached  the  headquarters  and  General  Wright  barely  escaped,  leaving 
his  papers  behind  him,  and  they  fell  into  our  hands.  We  killed  and 
wounded  between  seven  and  eight  thousand  of  the  panic-stricken  and 
bewildered  Federals,  and  broke  two  corps  entirely  to  pieces.  The  loss 
in  my  command  was,  only  about  two  hundred.  By  sunrise  we  occupied 
the  breast-works.  The  enemy's  cavalry  was  forced  to  retreat  before 
Rosser,  although  superior  to  him  in  numbers.  We  did  not  press  our 
advance.  The  enemy  still  had  the  Sixth  Corps  in  reserve,  but  we 
drove  it  back  and  captured  a  few  of  its  pieces.  That  was  the  battle  of 
Cedar  Creek,  and  it  was  a  complete  victory. 

"To  show  that  this  was  true,  let  me  remind  you  that  the  Eighth 
Corps  was  scattered  to  the  winds,  the  Nineteenth  Corps,  after  hard 
fighting,  was  routed  and  driven  entirely  out  of  their  works,  and  we 
had  possession  of  the  entire  Federal  position  except  a  part  of  that  held 
by  the  Sixth  Corps.  This  corps  had  filed  out  by  the  left  toward  the 
pike,  and  we  had  driven  them  back  and  forced  them  to  a  ridge  just 
west  of  Middletown.  We  had  the  pike  away  along  up  to  the  edge  of 
Middletown,  and  our  position  was  admirable  every  way. 

"  What  was  the  real  cause  of  the  halt  in  our  progress?  There  has 
been  a  great  deal  of  misunderstanding  on  this  point.  I  saw  that  the 


222  THE  LIFE  OF 

enemy  had  a  strong  position,  but  that  it  was  the  last  one  they  could  hold. 
We  had  one  of  the  finest  positions  for  posting  artillery  I  ever  saw  — 
right  on  the  highest  point  of  the  pike  sbulh  of  Middletown,  and  east 
and  above  Sheridan's  headquarters.  I  called  for  Colonel  Carter,  the 
chief  of  artillery,  and  wanted  thirty  guns  planted  right  there,  and  we 
would  have  battered  that  Federal  line  all  to  pieces,  demoralized  an 
already  beaten  army,  and  sent  it  in  utter  panic  down  the  valley.  Let 
me  tell  you  the  real  cause  of  our  failure  to  get  the  artillery  effectually 
at  work.  We  did  get  a  few  guns  —  enough  to  break  the  line  —  but 
herein  comes  the  lamentable  feature  of  that  day's  business.  You  know 
Early  says  that  the  final  defeat  was  caused  by  the  demoralization  of  his 
own  men  in  plundering  the  Federal  camp  and  in  gorging  on  sutlers' 
supplies  there  captured.  There  isn't  a  word  of  truth  in  it.  There 
never  was  less  straggling  or  plundering  among  any  troops  than  there 
was  in  our  army  that  morning.  I  had  them  well  in  hand,  and  had 
issued  the  strictest  orders  that  any  soldier  falling  out  for  plunder  should 
be  shot  instantly. 

"  That  whole  statement  is  false.  The  real  trouble  was  here.  I 
was  making  every  effort  to  get  a  mass  of  artillery  in  position  when 
General  Early  rode  up.  He  was  wild  with  joy.  I  exclaimed  '  Gen- 
eral Early,  give  me  thirty  pieces  of  artillery  right  here  and  we  will 
destroy  that  army  and  send  its  fragments  over  the  Potomac.'  I  knew 
that  the  supreme  moment  had  come. 

"'No,  no,'  he  said.  'We've  won  a  great  victory;  we've  done 
enough  for  one  day  ;  we  will  stop  here.' 

"  '  But,'  I  said,  '  let  us  finish  the  job.  It  is  true  we  have  won  a 
great  victory ;  let  us  complete  it.  We  can  do  it  in  an  hour,  and  so 
destroy  that  army  that  it  will  never  show  its  head  in  the  valley  again.' 

"But  General  Early  said  no;  that  the  men  had  seen  fighting 
enough,  and  that  we  had  won  glory  enough  for  one  day. 

"  '  Very  well,  sir,'  I  replied  ;   '  then  I  will  return  to  my  command.' 

"  Until  then  I  had  had  charge  of  the  entire  movement  on  the  right. 
I  did  return  to  'my  corps,  and  Early  carried  on  the  battle.  We 
followed  up  the  Federals  as  they  retreated.  Our  men  were  too  much 
elated  with  their  victory. 

As  to  Early's  own  conduct  on  the  field,  General  Gordon  permitted 
himself  to  say  nothing.  He  describes  vividly  how  the  battle  changed  : 

"  Every  body  knows  about  how  Sheridan  reached  the  field  in  the 
nick  of  time,  and  how  he  came  thundering  down  from  Winchester. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 


22} 


He  found  his  men 
scattered  along 
the  road  in  terror- 
stricken  confu- 
sion, and  he  com- 
pelled them  to 
turn  about  and 
follow  him.  He 
was  a  fury  on 
horseback,  dash- 
ing here  and  there 
among  the  flying 
soldiers  and  beat- 
ing them  back  to 
the  field  of  death 
which  they  had 
quitted.  Mean- 
while, the  men 
who  were  retreat- 
ing from  the  front 
had  been  brought 
to  some  sort  of 


GEN.  EBEN  J.  FARNSWORTH, 

A   DARING  CAVALRY  OFFICER,    KILLED  AT  GETTYSBURG. 


order.  Then  fol- 
lowed one  of  the  most  extraordinary  reversals  in  the  history  of  any 
war.  As  soon  as  Sheridan  reached  the  field  he  re-formed  his  line  and 
practiced  upon  us  precisely  the  same  movement  which  had  demoralized 
his  own  forces  in  the  morning.  He  just  moved  around  our  flank, 
swept  down  it,  and  whipped  us  out  of  existence.  He  broke  our  line 
all  to  fragments,  and  routed  the  whole  army  most  absolutely.  It  was 
as  thorough  a  defeat  as  I  ever  saw.  The  day  had  dawned  upon  victory 
and  exultation.  It  closed  upon  utter  disaster  and  dejection.  Two  dis- 
tinct battles  had  been  fought,  and  in  the  last  we  lost  all  that  we  had 
gained  in  the  first  one,  and  all  that  we  had  before.  The  reaction  was 
dramatic  in  its  suddenness  and  completeness,  and  when  we  left  the  field 
that  evening,  the  Confederacy  had  retired  from  the  Shenandoah.  It 
was  our  last  real  fight  in  the  valley." 

In  regard  to  the  number  of  killed  and  wounded  on  the  Union  side 
General  Gordon  overstates  the  facts  a  little.  We  fought  four  great 
battles  and  won  each  one  of  them,  with  the  loss,  in  killed  of  but  1,938, 


224  THE    LIFE    OF 

and  of  wounded  11,893.  The  missing  numbered  3,121;  in  all  16,- 
952.  These  figures  include  all  skirmishes  and  cavalry  fights  during  a 
period  of  seven  months.  It  was,  therefore,  impossible  that  our  loss 
could  be  as  great.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  was  less  in  the  morning  rout  by 
nearly  one-half  of  our  loss  at  Winchester  or  Opequan  Ford. 

General  Gordon's  statement  is,  however,  a  most  notew9rthy  one. 
The  character  of  its  author  is  a  clear  guarantee  of  its  truthfulness,  so 
far  as  he  was  able  to  know  the  facts  in  their  completeness. 

The  roster  of  the  Confederate  army  serving  under  General  Early,  at 
the  date  of  Sheridan's  arrival  in  the  valley,  was  as  follows  : 

ORGANIZATION   OF  THE   ARMY   OF  THE   VALLEY  DISTRICT,    ON 
SEPTEMBER  30,  1864. 

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL  JUBAL  EARLY,  Commanding. 

RHODES   DIVISION. 

MAJOR-GENERAL  S.  D.  RAMSEUR,  Commanding. 

Grimes'  Brigade. — Brigadier- General  Bryan  Grimes  :  Thirty-second  North 
Carolina,  Colonel  D.  G.  Cowand ;  Forty-third  North  Carolina,  Colonel  J.  R. 
Winston;  Forty-fifth  North  Carolina,  Colonel  J.  R.  Winston;  Fifty-third  North 
Carolina,  Colonel  D.  G.  Cowand;  Second  North  Carolina  Battalion,  Colonel 
D.  G.  Cowand. 

Cook's  Brigade. —  Brigadier-General  Phil  Cook  :  Fourth  Georgia,  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  W.  H.  Willis;  Twelfth  Georgia,  Captain  James  Everett;  Twenty-first 
Georgia,  Captain  H.  J.  Battle;  Forty-fourth  Georgia,  Lieutenant-Colonel  J.  W. 
Beck.. 

Cox's  Brigade. —  Brigadier-General  W.  R.  Cox:  First  North  Carolina,  Cap- 
tain W.  H.  Thompson ;  Second  North  Carolina,  Captain  T.  B.  Beall ;  Third 
North  Carolina,  Captain  W.  H.  Thompson;  Fourth  North  Carolina,  Colonel 
Ed.  A.  Osborn;  Fourteenth  North  Carolina,  Captain  Joseph  Jones;  Thirtieth 
North  Carolina,  Captain  J.  C.  McMillan. 

Battle's  Brigade. —  Brigadier-General  C.  A.  Battle  :  Third  Alabama,  Colonel 
Charles  Forsyth ;  Fifth  Alabama,  Lieutenant-Colonel  E.  L.  Hobson ;  Sixth 
Alabama,  Captain  J.  Green;  Twelfth  Alabama,  Captain  P.  D.  Rose;  Sixty-first 
Alabama,  Major  W.  E.  Pinckard. 

GORDON'S   DIVISION. 
MAJOR-GENERAL  JOHN  B.  GORDON,  Commanding. 

Hay's  Brigade. —  Colonel  Wm.  Monaghan  :  Fifth  Louisiana,  Major  A.  Hart; 
Sixth  Louisiana,  Lieutenant-Colonel  J.  Hanlon ;  Seventh  Louisiana,  Lieutenant- 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  225 

Colonel  T.  M.  Ferry;  Eighth  Louisiana,  Captain  L.  Prados ;  Ninth  Louisiana 
Colonel  Wm.  R.  Peck. 

Stafford's  Brigade. —  Colonel  Eugene  Waggaman  :  First  Louisiana,  Captain 
Joseph  Taylor;  Second  Louisiana,  Lieutenant-Colonel  M.  A.  Grogan ;  Tenth 
Louisiana,  Lieutenant-Colonel  H.  D.  Monier;  Fourteenth  Louisiana,  Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel David  Zable;  Fifteenth  Louisiana,  Captain  H.  J.  Egan. 

X 

Evan's  Brigade. —  Colonel  E.  N.  Atkinson  (October  3oth,  Brigadier-General 
C.  A.  Evans)  :  Thirteenth  Georgia,  Colonel  John  H.  Baker;  Twenty-sixth 
Georgia,  Lieutenant-Colonel  James  S.  Blain ;  Thirty-first  Georgia,  Colonel 
John  H.  Lowe;  Thirty-eighth  Georgia,  Major  Thomas  H.  Bomar;  Sixtieth 
Georgia,  Captain  Milton  Russell;  Sixty-first  Georgia,  Captain  E.  F.  Sharpe; 
Twelfth  Georgia  Battalion,  Captain  J.  W.  Anderson. 

Terry's  Brigade. —  Brigadier-General  William  Terry:  Stonewall  Brigade, 
Colonel  J.  H.  S.  Frink  (October  3oth,  Colonel  A.  Spangler)  :  Second  Virginia, 
Fourth  Virginia,  Fifth  Virginia,  Twenty-seventh  Virginia,  Thirty-third  Vir- 
ginia;  J.  M.  Jones  Brigade,  Colonel  R.  H.  Dungan  (October  3oth,  Colonel 
W.  A.  Whitcher)  :  Twenty-first  Virginia,  Twenty-fifth  Virginia,  Forty-second 
Virginia,  Forty-fourth  Virginia,  Forty-eighth  Virginia,  Fiftieth  Virginia ;  G. 
H.  Steuart's  Brigade,  Lieutenant-Colonel  S.  H.  Saunders  (October  3oth,  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Martz)  :  Tenth  Virginia,  Twenty-third  Virginia,  Thirty-seventh 
Virginia. 

EARLY'S   DIVISION. 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL  JOHN  PEGRAM,  Commanding. 

Peg-rani's  Brigade. —  Colonel  John  S.  Hoffman  :  Thirteenth  Virginia,  Captain 
Felix  Herskell ;  Thirty-first  Virginia,  Lieutenant-Colonel  J.  S.  K.  McCutchen ; 
Forty-ninth  Virginia,  Captain  John  G.  Lobban;  Fifty-second  Virginia,  Captain 
J.  M.  Humphreys;  Fifty-eighth  Virginia,  Captain  L.  C.  James. 

Johnston's  Brigade. —  Brigadier-General  Robert  D.  Johnston  :  Fifth  North 
Carolina,  Colonel  John  W.  Lea;  Twelfth  North  Carolina,  Colonel  Henry  E. 
Coleman;  Twenty-ninth  North  Carolina,  Colonel  T.  F.  Toon;  Twenty-third 
North  Carolina,  Colonel  C.  C.  Blacknall. 

Godwin's  Brigade. —  Lieutenant-Colonel  W.  T.  Davis  :  Sixth  North  Carolina, 
Lieuteuant-Colonel  S.  McD.  Tate ;  Twenty-first  North  Carolina,  Major  W.  I. 
Pfohl ;  Fifty-fourth  North  Carolina,  Captain  A.  H.  Martin  ;  Fifty-seventh  North 
Carolina,  Captain  M.  H.  Hunter;  First  North  Carolina  Battalion,  Captain  R.  E. 
Wilson. 

WHARTON'S   DIVISION. 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL  G.  C.  WHARTON,  Commanding. 

EchoVs  Brigade. —  Captain   Edmund    S.    Read :     Twenty-second    Virginia, 
Captain  Henry  S.  Dickerson ;  Twenty-third  Virginia,  Captain  John  M.  Pratt ; 
Twenty-sixth  Virginia,  Captain  Frank  S.  Burdett. 
15 


226  THE  LIFE  OF 

Wharton's  Brigade. —  Captain  R.  H.  Logan:  Forty-fifth  Virginia,  Major 
Alexander  M.  Davis;  Fifty-first  Virginia,  Colonel  August  Fosberg;  Thirtieth 
Virginia  Battalion,  Lieutenant-Colonel  J.  Lyle  Clark. 

Smith's  Brigade. — Colonel  Thomas  Smith  :  Thirty-sixth  Virginia,  Lieutenant 
Jackson  Vin;  Sixtieth  Virginia,  Captain  A.  G.  P.  George;  Forty-fifth  Virginia 
Battalion,  Captain  W.  B.  Hensly ;  Thomas  Legion,  Lieutenant-Colonel  J.  R. 
Lowe. 

KERSHAW'S  DIVISION. 

MAJOR-GENERAL  J.  B.  KERSHAW,  Commanding. 

Wojford's  Brigade. —  Colonel  C.  C.  Sanders  :  Sixteenth  Georgia,  Major 
J.  S.  Cholston;  Eighteenth  Georgia,  Colonel  Joseph  Armstrong;  Twenty- 
fourth  Georgia,  Colonel  C.  C.  Sanders;  Third  Georgia  Battalion,  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  N.  L.  Hutchiris;  Cobb's  Legion,  Lieutenant-Colonel  L.  J.  Glenn; 
Phillip's  Legion,  Lieutenant-Colonel  J.  Hamilton. 

Kersha-w's  Brigade. —  Brigadier-General  Conner:  Second  South  Carolina, 
Colonel  J.  D.  Kennedy;  Third  South  Carolina,  Colonel  W.  D.  Rutherford; 
Seventh  South  Carolina,  Captain  E.  J.  Goggans ;  Eighth  South  Carolina,  Colo- 
nel J.  W.  Henagan ;  Fifteenth  South  Carolina,  Colonel  J.  B.  Davis;  Twentieth 
South  Carolina,  Col.  S.  M.  Boykin ;  Third  South  Carolina  Battalion,  Lieuten- 
ant [Colonel]  W.  G.  Rice. 

Humphreys'  Brigade. —  Brigadier-General  B.  G.  Humphreys :  Thirteenth 
Mississippi,  Lieutenant-Colonel  A.  G.  O'Brien;  Seventeenth  Mississippi,  Cap- 
tain J.'C.  Cockran;  Eighteenth  Mississippi,  Colonel  T.  M.  Griffin ;  Twenty-first 
Mississippi,  Colonel  D.  N.  Moody. 

Bryan's  Brigade. —  Brigadier-General  Goode  Bryan:  Tenth  Georgia,  Colo- 
nel W.  C.  Holt;  Fiftieth  Georgia,  Colonel  P.  McGloshan ;  Fifty-first  Georgia, 
Colonel  E.  Ball;  Fifty-third  Georgia,  Colonel  J.  P.  Simms. 

ARTILLERY  DIVISION. 
COLONEL  T.  H.  CARTER,  Commanding. 

Braxton' 's  Battalion. — Lieutenant-Colonel  C.  M.  Braxton  :  Alleghany  Artil- 
lery, Virginia,  Captain  J.  C.  Carpenter;  Stafford  Artillery,  Virginia,  Captain 
W.  P.  Cooper;  Lee  Battery,  Virginia,  Lieutenant  W.  W.  Hardwick. 

Cutshatv's  Battalion. —  Major  W.  E.  Cutshaw :  Orange  Artillery,  Virginia, 
Captain  C.  W.  Fry;  Staunton  Artillery,  Virginia,  Captain  A.  W.  Garber; 
Courtney  Battery,  Virginia,  L.  F.  Jones. 

McLaughlin's  Battalion. —  Major  William  McLaughlin  :  Bryan's  Virginia 
Battery;  Chapman's  Virginia  Battery ;  Lowry's  Virginia  Battery. 

Nelson's  Battalion. — Lieutenant-Colonel  William  Nelson  :  Amherst  Artillery, 
Virginia,  Captain  T.  J.  Kirkpatrick;  Fluvanna  Artillery,  Virginia,  Captain  J. 
L.  Massic;  Milledge's  Artillery,  Georgia,  Captain  John  Milledge. 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN.  227 

CAVALRY   FORCES. 
LOMAX' DIVISION. 

MAJOR-GENERAL  J.  J.  LOMAX. 

McCausland's  Brigade. — Brigadier-General  J.  McCausland  :  Fourteenth  Vir- 
ginia ;  Sixteenth  Virginia ;  Seventeenth  Virginia  ;  Twenty-Fifth  Virginia ;  Thirty- 
seventh  Virginia  Battalion. 

Johnson 's  Brigade. —  Brigadier-General  B.  T.  Johnson:  Eighth  Virginia; 
Twenty-first  Virginia;  Twenty-second  Virginia;  Thirty-fourth  Virginia  Battery ; 
Thirty-sixth  Virginia  Battery. 

Jackson's    Brigade. —  Brigadier-General   H.   B.   Davidson  :  First  Maryland  ; 

Nineteenth  Virginia  ;  Twentieth  Virginia ;  Forty-sixth  Virginia  Battalion  ;  Forty- 
seventh  Virginia  Battalion. 

Imboderfs  Brigade. —  Colonel  George  H.  Smith:  Eighteenth  Virginia; 
Twenty-third  Virginia ;  Sixty-second  Mounted  Infantry. 

LEE'S  DIVISION. 

Wickhani's  Brigade. —  Brigadier-General  W.  C.  Wickham  :  First  Virginia, 
Colonel  Carter;  Second  Virginia,  Colonel  Mumford ;  Third  Virginia,  Colonel 
Owen  ;  Fourth  Virginia,  Colonel  Payne. 

Lomax1  Brigade. —  Brigadier-General  L.  L.  Lomax  :  Fifth  Virginia,  Colonel 
H.  Clay  Pate;  Sixth  Virginia,  Colonel  Julien  Harrison;  Fifteenth  Virginia, 
Colonel  C.  R.  Collins. 

Rosser's  Brigade. — Brigadier-General  Thomas  L.  Rosser :  Seventh  Virginia, 
Colonel  R.  H.  Dulany;  Eleventh  Virginia,  Colonel  O.  R.  Funsten ;  Twelfth 
Virginia,  Colonel  A.  W.  Harman ;  Thirty-fifth  Virginia  Battalion,  Lieutenant- 
Colonel  E.  V.  White. 


SHERIDAN'S  RIDE. 


"  But  there  is  a  road  from  Winchester  town, 
A  good,  broad  highway  leading  down ; 
And  there,  through  the  flush  of  the  morning  light, 


A  steed  as  black  as  the  steeds  of  night, 
Was  seen  to  pass,  as  with  eagle  flight." 


[From  an  Original  Painting  by  Copeland,  of  Boston.] 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


SHERIDAN'S  RIDE. 

THE  DASH  TO  CEDAR  CREEK — HOW  THE  RIDE  WAS  MADE —  SHERIDAN'S  WAR- 
HORSE —  A  DESPERATE  SITUATION  —  THE  TIDE  OF  BATTLE  RUNNING 
AGAINST  THE  UNION  TROOPS — A  FRESH  INSPIRATION  FOR  THE  ARMY  — 
HOW  THE  STORY  OF  IT  CAME  TO  BE  WRITTEN — HOW  T.  BUCHANAN  READ 
GOT  HIS  INSPIRATION. 

BETWEEN  Winchester  and  Cedar  Creek  sixteen  to  eighteen  miles  of 
turnpike  stretched  away  up  the  beautiful  valley  that  had  been  made 
desolate  by  the  torch  and  tramp  of  armies.  As  that  charming  region, 
clad  in  the  garb  of  summer,  lay  between  the  mountains,  its  bright 
colors  reflected  in  the  rays  of  a  mellow  sunshine,  it  was  but  a  sad 
reminder  of  the  once  great  granary  that  for  more  than  three  years  of 
conflict  had  furnished  untold  supplies  to  the  Confederate  Army. 
Sheridan  had  laid  it  waste. 

He  had  clinched  with  and  beaten  Early  at  Winchester,  and  now 
he  was  hurrying  with  all  speed  back  to  the  scenes  of  strife,  where  the 
tide  of  battle  was  ebbing  and  flowing  upon  a  new  field,  and  the  fate 
of  the  day  hung  trembling  in  the  balance. 

For  several  weary,  doubtful  houfs  the  two  armies  had  been  in  deadly 
conflict.  When  Sheridan  arrived  at  Winchester,  the  roar  of  artillery 
and  the  roll  of  musketry  could  be  distinctly  heard  from  the  field  of 
carnage  along  Cedar  Creek.  Down  the  valley  came  the  awful  din, 
echoing  louder  and  louder  through  the  still  summer  air,  as  the  battle 
grew  fiercer.  There  was  but  short  delay  at  Winchester,  the  chief 
town  in  the  lower  valley. 

There  Sheridan  mounted  his  favorite  war-horse, —  a  large,  beautiful, 
sinewy,  black  charger,  who  had  borne  his  master  through  the  heat  of 
many  conflicts.  He  is  dead  .now,  and  his  body  has  been  preserved, 
that  men  yet  to  corne  may  see  the  animal  whose  endurance  has  been 
recorded  in  enduring  verse.  Through  the  town  and  out  over  the  turn- 
pike which  leads  up  the  Shenandoah,  Sheridan  rode. 


2}o  THE  LIFE  OF 

Who,  knowing  the  quality  of  the  man,  cannot  picture  the  restless 
rider  urging  his  horse  to  his  utmost  speed  to  reach  the  field  where  the 
fate  of  his  army  was  still  pending  in  the  hazard  of  war.  He  had  only 
covered  a  few  miles,  when  the  moving  mass  of  debris  which  always 
surges  at  the  rear  of  a  battle-field  when  the  conflict  is  severe  and  doubt- 
ful, met  his  trained  eye,  and  told  more  plainly  than  words  what  was 
going  on  in  front.  It  was  a  signal  of  distress,  and  none  knew  it  better 
than  he.  The  sight  fired  his  heart  anew,  and  only  added  fresh  impetus 
to  his  foaming  horse.  He  reached  the  field  after  a  sleepless  night  and 
a  terrific  journey,  and  the  battle  of  Cedar  Creek  was  won.  Both  poet 
and  painter  took  up  the  theme  of  the  ride  and  made  it  famous. 

"  I  was  not  with  Sheridan  at  this  time,"  said  James  E.  Murdoch, 
44  but  was  at  the  headquarters  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland.  Soon 
after  the  battle  of  Cedar  Creek,  I  came  up  to  Cincinnati  and  was  visit- 
ing Mr.  Cyrus  Garrett,  whom  we  called  '  Old  Cyclops.'  He  was 
T.  Buchanan  Read's  brother-in-law,  and  with  him  the  poet  made  his 
home.  The  ladies  of  Cincinnati  had  arranged  to  give  me  a  reception 
that  finally  turned  into  an  ovation.  I  had  given  many  readings  to  raise 
funds  to  assist  their  Soldiers'  Aid  Society,  and  they  were  going  to  pre- 
sent me  with  a  silk  flag.  Pike's  Opera  House  had  been  secured,  the 
largest  place  of  amusement  in  the  city,  and  they  had  made  every  arrange- 
ment to  have  the  reception  a  very  dramatic  event.  The  morning  of  the 
day  it  was  to  take  place,  Read  and  I  were,  as  usual,  taking  our  break- 
fast late.  We  had  just  finished,  but  were  still  sitting  at  the  table 
chatting. 

"  Mr.  Garrett,  the  brother-in-law,  a  business  man  and  guided  by 
business  habits,  came  in  while  we  were  thus  lounging.  He  wore  an  air 
of  impatience,  and  carried  a  paper  in  his  hand.  He  walked  directly  up 
to  Read,  unfolded  a  copy  of  Harper's  Weekly  and  held  it  up  before  the 
man  so  singularly  gifted  as  both  poet  and  painter.  The  whole  front 
of  the  paper  was  covered  with  a  striking  picture  representing  Sheridan, 
seated  on  his  black  horse,  just  emerging  from  a  cloud  of  dust  that  rolled 
up  from  the  highway  as  he  dashed  along,  followed  by  a  few  troopers. 

u 'There,'  said  Mr.  Garrett,  addressing  Read,  k  see  what  you  have 
missed.  You  ought  to  have  drawn  that  picture  yourself  and  gotten  the 
credit  of  it ;  it  is  just  in  your  line.  The  first  thing  you  know  somebody 
will  write  a  poem  on  that  event,  and  you  will  be  beaten  all  round.' 

"  Read  looked  at  the  picture  rather  quizzically  —  a  look  which  I 
interrupted  by  saying : 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 


"'Old  Cy- 
clops is  right, 
Read,  the  subject 
and  the  circum- 
stance are  worth 
a  poem.' 

'"Oh  no,' 
said  Read,  'that 
theme  has  been 
written  to  death. 
There  is  "  Paul 
Revere's  Ride," 
"  Lochinvar," 
Tom  Hood's 
"Wild  Steed  of 
the  Plains,"  and 
half  a  dozen 
other  poems  of 
like  character.' 

"Filled  with 
the  idea  that  this 
was  a  good 
chance  for  the 
gifted  man,  I 
said : 

"'Read,  you 
are  losing  a  great 
opportunity.  If 
I  had  such  a 


GEN.   JUBAL  EARLY, 

SHERIDAN'S  ANTAGONIST  AT  WINCHESTER. 

[From  a  Photograph  taken  since  the  War.] 


poem  to  read  at  my  reception  to-night,  it  would  make  a  great  hit.' 
"  '  But,  Murdoch,  you  can't  order  a  poem  as  you  would  a  coat.     I 
can't  write  anything  in  a  few  hours  that  will  do  either  you  or  me  any 
credit,'  he  replied  rather  sharply. 
"  I  turned  to  him,  and  said  : 

"  '  Read,  two  or  three  thousand  of  the  warmest  hearts  in  Cincinnati 
will  be  in  Pike's  Opera  House  to-night  at  that  presentation.  It  will  be 
a  very  significant  affair.  Now,  you  go  and  give  me  anything  in  rhyme, 
and  I  will  give  it  a  deliverance  before  that  splendid  audience,  and  you 
can  then  revise  and  polish  it  before  it  goes  into  print.' 

"  This  view  seemed  to  strike  him  favorably,  and  he  finally  said  : 
"  '  Well !  Well !  We'll  see  what  can  be  done,'  and  he  went  upstairs 


252  THE  LIFE  OF 


to  his  room.  A  half  hour  later,  Hattie,  his  wife,  a  brilliant  woman, 
who  is  now  residing  in  Philadelphia,  came  down  and  said  : 

"  '  He  wants  a  pot  of  strong  tea.  He  told  me  to  get  it  for  him,  and 
then  he  would  lock  the  door  and  must  not  be  disturbed  unless  the  house 
was  afire.' 

"Time  wore  on,  and  in  our  talk  on  other  matters  in  the  family  circle 
we  had  almost  forgotten  the  poet  at  work  upstairs.  Dinner  had  been 
announced,  and  we  were  about  to  sit  down,  when  Read  came  in  and 
beckoned  to  me.  When  I  reached  the  room,  he  said  : 

"  '  Murdoch,  I  think  I  have  about  what  you  want.' 

u  He  read  it  to  me,  and  with  an  enthusiasm  that  surprised  him,  I 
said,  '  It  is  just  the  thing.' 

"  We  dined,  and  at  the  proper  time,  Read  and  I,  with  the  family, 
went  to  Pike's  Opera  House.  The  building  was  crowded  in  every 
part.  Upon  the  stage  were  sitting  200  maimed  soldiers,  each  with  an 
arm  or  a  leg  oft".  General  Joe  Hooker  was  to  present  me  with  the 
flag  the  ladies  had  made,  and  at  the  time  appointed  we  marched  down 
the  stage  toward  the  footlights,  General  Hooker  bearing  the  flag,  and  I 
with  my  arm  in  his.  Such  a  storm  of  applause  as  greeted  the  appear- 
ance I  never  heard  before  or  since.  Behind  and  on  each  side  of  us  were 
the  rows  of  crippled  soldiers, —  in  front  the  vast  audience,  cheering  to 
the  echo.  Hooker  quailed  before  the  warm  reception,  and  growing  ner- 
vous, said  to  me  in  an  undertone  : 

" '  I  can  stand  the  storm  of  battle,  but  this  is  too  much  for  me.' 

4'  '  Leave  it  to  me,'  said  I,  '  I  am  an  old  hand  behind  the  footlights 
and  will  divert  the  strain  from  you.'  So  quickly  I  dropped  upon  my 
knee,  took  a  fold  of  the  silken  flag  and  pressed  it  to  my  lips.  This 
by -play  created  a  fresh  storm  of  enthusiasm,  but  it  steadied  Hooker,  and 
he  presented  the  flag  very  gracefully.  I  accepted  it  in  fitting  words. 

"  I  then  drew  the  poem  Read  had  written  from  my  pocket,  and 
with  proper  introduction,  began  reading  it  to  the  audience.  The  vast 
assemblage  became  as  still  as-  a  church  during  prayer-time,  and  I  read 
the  three  verses  without  a  pause,  and  then  the  fourth  : 

"  '  Under  his  spurning  feet  the  road 
Like  an  arrowy  Alpine  river  flowed, 
And  the  landscape  sped  away  behind 
Like  an  ocean  flying  before  the  wind, 
And  the  steed,  like  a  bark  fed  with  furnace  ire, 
Swept  on,  with  his  wild  eyes  full  of  fire. 
But  lo  !  he  is  nearing  his  heart's  desire  ; 
He  is  snuffing  the  smoke  of  the  roaring  fray, 
With  Sheridan  only  five  miles  away.' 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  ajj 

u  As  this  verse  was  finished  the  audience  broke  into  a  tumult  of 
applause.  Then  I  read  with  all  the  spirit  I  could  command  : 

"  '  The  first  that  the  general  saw  were  the  groups 
Of  stragglers,  and  then  the  retreating  troops. 
What  was  done?  what  to  do?  a  glance  told  him  both ; 
Then  striking  his  spurs,  with  a  terrible  oath, 
He  dashed  down  the  line,  'mid  a  storm  of  huzzas, 
And  the  wave  of  retreat  checked  its  course  there,  because 
The  sight  of  the  master  compelled  it  to  pause. 
With  foam  and  with  dust  the  black  charger  was  gray ; 
By  the  flash  of  his  eye,  and  his  red  nostrils'  play, 
He  seemed  to  the  whole  great  army  to  say, 
"  I  have  brought  you  Sheridan  all  the  way 
From  Winchester,  down  to  save  the  day."  ' 

4 'The  sound  of  my  voice  uttering  the  last  word  had  not  died  away, 
when  cheer  after  cheer  went  up  from  the  great  concourse  that  shook 
the  building  to  its  very  foundation.  Ladies  waved  their  handkerchiefs 
and  men  their  hats,  until  worn  out  with  the  fervor  of  the  hour.  They 
then  demanded  the  author's  name,  and  I  pointed  to  Read,  who  was 
sitting  in  a  box,  and  he  acknowledged  the  verses. 

4 'In  such  a  setting  and  upon  such  an  occasion  as  I  have  been  able 
only  faintly  to  describe  to  you,  the  poem  of  Sheridan's  ride  was  given 
to  the  world.  It  was  written  in  about  three  hours,  and  not  a  word  was 
ever  changed  after  I  read  it  from  the  manuscript,  except  by  the  addition 
of  the  third  verse,  which  records  the  fifteen-mile  stage  of  the  ride  : 

"  '  But  there  is  a  road  from  Winchester  town, 
A  good,  broad  highway  leading  down ; 
And  there,  through  the  flush  of  the  morning  light, 
A  steed  as  black  as  the  steeds  of  night 
Was  seen  to  pass,  as  with  eagle  flight, 
As  if  he  knew  the  terrible  need ; 
He  stretched  away  with  the  utmost  speed  ; 
Hills  rose  and  fell;  but  his  heart  was  gay, 
With  Sheridan  fifteen  miles  away.' 

"  This  Mr.  Read  wrote  while  on  his  way,  shortly  after  I  first  read  the 
poem,  to  attend  a  birthday  reception  to  William  Cullen  Bryant.  Mr. 
Read  read  the  poem,  thus  completed,  at  Mr.  Bryant's  birthday  party. 
The  great  old  man  listened  to  every  line  of  it,  and  then,  taking  the 
younger  poet  by  the  hand,  said,  with  great  warmth,  '  That  poem  will 
live  as  long  as  •i  Lochinvar." 


THE  LIFE  OF 

The  heroic  verse  in  which  Mr.  Read  so  graphically  describes  General 
Sheridan's  wonderful  ride  is  here  quoted  i»  full : 

SHERIDAN'S  RIDE. 


UP  from  the  south  at  break  of  day, 
Bringing  to  Winchester  fresh  dismay, 
The  affrighted  air  with  a  shudder  bore, 
Like  a  herald  in  haste,  to  the  chieftain's  door, 
The  terrible  grumble,  and  rumble,  and  roar, 
Telling  the  battle  was  on  once  more, 
And  Sheridan  twenty  miles  away. 

And  wider  still  those  billows  of  war 
Thundered  along  the  horizon's  bar  ; 
And  louder  yet  into  Winchester  rolled 
The  roar  of  that  red  sea  uncontrolled, 
Making  the  blood  of  the  listener  cold, 
As  he  thought  of  the  stake  in  that  fiery  fray, 
And  Sheridan  twenty  miles  away. 

But  there  is  a  road  from  Winchester  town, 

A  good,  broad  highway  leading  down  ; 

And  there,  through  the  flush  of  the  morning  light, 

A  steed  as  black  as  the  steeds  of  night, 

Was  seen  to  pass,  as  with  eagle  flight, 

As  if  he  knew  the  terrible  need  ; 

He  stretched  away  with  his  utmost  speed ; 

Hills  rose  and  fell ;  but  his  heart  was  gay, 

With  Sheridan  fifteen  miles  away. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  2}$ 

Still  sprung  from  those  swift  hoofs,  thundering  south, 

The  dust,  like  smoke  from  the  cannon's  mouth  ; 

Or  the  trail  of  a  comet,  sweeping  faster  and  faster, 

Foreboding  to  traitors  the  doom  of  disaster. 

The  heart  of  the  steed,  and  the  heart  of  the  master, 

Were  beating  like  prisoners  assaulting  their  walls, 

Impatient  to  be  where  the  battle-field  calls  ; 

Every  nerve  of  the  charger  was  strained  to  full  play, 

With  Sheridan  only  ten  miles  away. 

Under  his  spurning  feet  the  road 

Like  an  arrowy  Alpine  river  flowed, 

And  the  landscape  sped  away  behind 

Like  an  ocean  flying  before  the  wind, 

And  the  steed,  like  a  bark  fed  with  furnace  ire, 

Swept  on,  with  his  wild  eye  full  of  fire. 

But  lo  !  he  is  nearing  his  heart's  desire  ; 

He  is  snuffing  the  smoke  of  the  roaring  fray, 

With  Sheridan  only  five  miles  away. 

The  first  that  the  general  saw  were  the  groups 
Of  stragglers,  and  then  the  retreating  troops. 
What  was  done  ?  what  to  do  ?  a  glance  told  him  both  ; 
Then  striking  his  spurs,  with  a  terrible  oath, 
He  dashed  down  the  line,  'mid  a  storm  of  huzzas, 
And  the  wave  of  retreat  checked  its  course  there,  because 
The  sight  of  the  master  compelled  it  to  pause. 
With  foam  and  with  dust  the  black  charger  was  gray ; 
By  the  flash  of  his  eye,  and  his  red  nostrils'  play, 
He  seemed  to  the  whole  great  army  to  say, 
1  I  have  brought  you  Sheridan  all  the  way 
From  Winchester,  down  to  save  the  day." 


2)6  GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN. 

Hurrah  !  hurrah  for  Sheridan  ! 
Hurrah  !  hurrah  for  horse. and  man  ! 
And  when  their  statues  are  placed  on  high, 
Under  the  dome  of  the  Union  sky, 
The  American  soldiers'  Temple  of  Fame  ; 
There  with  the  glorious  general's  name, 
Be  it  said,  in  letters  both  bold  and  bright, 
"  Here  is  the  steed  tfcat  saved  the  day, 
By  carrying  Sheridan  into  the  fight, 
From  Winchester,  twenty  miles  away  !  " 


GENERAL  SHERIDAN'S  HEADQUARTERS  AT 
WINCHESTER. 

THE   RESIDENCE  OF  LLOYD  LOGAN,   ESQ. 


CHAPTER  XX. 


THE  UNION  CAVALRY  AND  ITS  COM- 
MANDERS. 

HOW  OUR  CAVALRY  BECAME  EFFECTIVE  —  MOUNTED  INFANTRY  AND  ITS  USES  — 
SHERIDAN  AND  CAVALRY  REORGANIZATION  —  HOW  THE  COMMANDERS  WERE 
BRED  —  THE  BATTLE  OF  TOM'S  RUN,  AND  THE  "WOODSTOCK  RACES  "— A 
GRAPHIC  DESCRIPTION  OF  BATTLE  —  CUSTER,  THE  EMBODIMENT  OF  WAR  — 
STORIES  OF  THE  YELLOW-HAIRED  CAVALRYMAN  —  SKETCHES  OF  OTHER  COM- 
MANDERS —  THE  VALUE  OF  CAVALRY — DESTROYING  RAILROADS. 

WHEN  the  Civil  War  began,  Lieutenant-General  Scott,  then  in  com- 
mand of  the  army,  was  quite  hostile  to  the  organization  of  a  large  cav- 
alry force.  The  men  of  the  West,  especially,  were  anxious  for  mounted 
service.  Naturally  they  desired  this,  for  outside  the  cities  and  towns  — 
both  smaller,  and  the  towns  not  so  numerous  as  now  —  the  young  men  of 
America  were  all  horsemen.  They  may  not  have  had  the  "  cavalry  seat," 
but  they  all  knew  how  to  ride.  It  was  this  fact  that  made  the  transfer  so 
easy  in  the  West  of  large  bodies  of  infantry  into  a  very  efficient  cavalry 
army.  And  in  that  fact  may  be  seen  another,  and  that  is,  that  our 
mounted  force  did  a  large  proportion  of  its  serious  fighting  on  foot. 
The  utility  of  the  service  was  in  its  celerity  and  activity.  The  cavalry 
soldier,  properly  handled,  is  the  eye  and  hand  of  an  army.  He  should 
be  the  embodiment  of  the  perceptive  faculties,  used  by  the  reason  to 
base  action  upon.  The  value  of  cavalry  in  all  modern  warfare  has  been 
greatly  enhanced  by  the  large  experiences  earned  in  the  slave-holders' 
rebellion.  The  Southern  military  authorities  were  open  from  the  out- 
set to  the  value  of  the  mounted  soldier.  They  made  of  the  service  a 
special  feature,  by  requiring  the  cavalryman  to  furnish  his  own  horse. 
From  the  first,  then,  the  Confederates  outnumbered  us  in  that  direction. 
It  took  two  years  of  actual  warfare  to  make  our  War  Department  see  the 
great  need  of  this  special  service.  And  it  was  under  Sheridan's  fight- 
ing quality  that  it  received  the  first  marked  impetus.  The  Booneville 
battle,  and  raid  on  the  Mobile  and  Ohio  railroad  were  the  first  marked 


238  THE  LIFE  OF 

incidents  of  that  character  on  our  side.  The  utility  of  cavalry  in  the 
destruction  of  communications,  as  well  as  in  developing  an  enemy's 
movements,  was  then  made  apparent.-.  Rosecrans  was  first  among 
Union  generals  to  improvise  a  cavalry  force  —  mounted  infantry,  under 
the  dashing  Wilder,  being  first  employed  in  the  Army  of  the  Cumber- 
land, after  the  battle  of  Stone  River.  Generals  Stanley,  St.  George 
Cooke,  and  Stoneman,  of  the  regular  army,  had  already  made  very 
efficient  the  small  force  of  volunteer  cavalry  which  red  tape  and  techni- 
cal theories  had  allowed  to  be  recruited  and  organized.  Out  of  these 
regiments  came  some  of  the  most  capable  and  brilliant  commanders  of 
the  war,  especially  of  those  who  under  Grant  and  Sheridan  were 
enabled,  during  its  last  year  of  daring  deeds  and  tremendous  conflicts, 
to  accomplish  so  much  in  and  with  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  for  the 
closing  triumph  of  the  Union  cause. 

Another  force  that  tended,  when  the  war  was  well  underway  and 
sweeping  in  its  fulness  over  the  vast  continental  field  of  its  action,  was 
the  fact  that  so  large  an  area  was  embraced  within  the  border  states, 
divided  as  they  were  between  the  two  camps.  Bush-whacking  by  Con- 
federate partisans  in  Virginia,  Tennessee,  Kentucky,  Missouri,  and 
elsewhere,  rendered  necessary  resisting  organization  as  active  as  that 
of  the  guerrillas,  who,  mounted,  were  here  and  there  as  if  in  a  flash,  and 
being  well  informed  by  their  neighborhood  allies,  were  able  to  make 
of  partisan  fighters  like  Moseby  in  Virginia,  Morgan  and  Duke  in 
Tennessee  and  Kentucky,  and  even  Quantrell  in  Missouri,  a  most 
formidable  obstacle  to  Union  success.  As  a  consequence  of  this,  the 
enrolled  Union  militia  of  the  border  states  soon  became  in  large  pro- 
portion, a  mounted  force,  trained  to  fight  as  infantry,  but  moving  as 
cavalry.  A  notable  example  of  this  was  seen  in  the  fall  of  1864,  when 
Sterling  Price,  with  some  eighteen  thousand  mounted  men,  invaded 
Missouri  and  the  Kansas  borders,  increasing  his  force  to  some  thirty 
thousand,  and  was  met,  defeated,  and  driven  out  by  the  mounted  forces, 
never  over  eight  thousand  in  action,  and  usually  not  more  than  five 
thousand,  of  the  Departments  of  Kansas  and  Missouri,  commanded  by 
Generals  Alfred  Pleasonton,  James  G.  Blunt,  Moonlight,  Winslow,  C.  H. 
Blair,  Phelps,  Cloud,  and  others.  The  same  lesson  was  learned  when 
Morgan  and  Duke  crossed  the  Ohio  River  and  invaded  parts  of  Indiana 
and  Ohio.  It  was  the  mounted  forces  that  poured  upon  them  in  their 
retreat  through  Kentucky, —  that  pounded  their  reeling  lines  into  shat- 
tered fragments.  It  was  the  cavalry  under  that  sturdy  trooper,  General 
Grierson,  that  utterly  destroyed  the  Mobile  and  Ohio  railroad  with  its 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN. 


239 


adj  uncts. 
It  was  Sher- 
man's cav- 
a  1  r  y  ,  o  r 
rather  his 
''bum- 
mers"— the 
a  d  ventu- 
rous spirit 
of that great 
armywhich 
could  not be 
restrained, 
and  risked 
all  to  see 
and  know 
more  than 
their  fel- 
lows on  the 
"march 
to  the 
sea ,"  and 
" through 
the  Caro- 
li  nas"— 
that  so  suc- 
cessfully 
proved  the 
Confedera- 
cy to  be  "a 

hollow  shell,"  by  destroying  all  the  means  of  communication  and  trans- 
portation they  could  reach.  It  was  General  James  H.  Wilson,  trained 
in  Virginia  under  Sheridan,  whose  splendid  execution  of  the  last  great 
cavalry  raid  in  the  Central  South,  beginning  at  Limestone,  in  Northern 
Alabama,  and  closing  in  Georgia  with  the  capture  of  Jefferson  Davis 
by  Michigan  and  Wisconsin  cavalrymen,  under  Colonels  Pritchard  and 
La  Grange,  that  effectually  destroyed  the  possibility  of  further  Confed- 
erate resistance  after  Appomattox,  within  the  Cotton  and  Gulf  States 
at  least. 

The  cavalry  service  bred  commanders,  it  seems.      On  our  side  there 


GEN.  JAMES  H.  WILSON, 


ONE  OF  SHERIDAN'S  FAMOUS  GENERALS.  HE  CONDUCTED  THE  LAST  GREAT 
RAID  IN  WHICH  JEFFERSON  DAVIS  WAS  CAPTURED. 


240  THE  LIFE  OF 

may  at  a  glance  be  named,  McClellan,  Franklin,  Thomas,  Reynolds, 
Granger,  Stanley,  Sykes,  Sturgis,  Frederick  Steele,  McPherson, 
Philip  St.  George  Cooke,  Kautz,  Ord,  Crook,  Kilpatrick,  Pleas- 
onton,  Burnside,  Merritt,  Torbett,  Wilson,  Averill,  Custer,  Grierson, 
and  many  another  who  graduated  at  West  Point  and  entered  the  cav- 
alry arm  of  the  service  before  and  during  the  Civil  War. 

There  is  a  marvelous  fascination  in  it.  The  wondrous  activity,  the 
ceaseless  daring,  the  constant  danger,  the  perpetual  adventure,  the  free- 
dom of  motion,  the  companionship  of  man  and  horse,  the  open-air  life, 
the  responsibility,  also,  —  all  combined  to  give  to  the  cavalryman's  life 
a  keener  zest,  and  a  large  place  in  the  administration  of  an  army.  "The 
tented  field "  soon  became  a  myth  to  the  Union  soldier  on  horseback. 
He  might  or  might  not  carry  a  shelter  tent ;  but  all  he  wanted  was  on 
his  horse.  The  wagon  train  was  gradually  replaced,  especially  in  the 
western  cavalry,  by  pack-mules.  The  call  to  "boots  and  saddle" 
found  them  always  ready,  and  the  clear,  resonant  notes  of  the  "charge  " 
tightened  every  rein,  steeled  every  nerve,  and  made  every  man  and 
horse  part  of  a  terrible  machine  of  war,  and  yet  an  individuality  that 
was  full  of  character  and  freedom.  It  was  the  constant  chance  of  per- 
sonal freedom- of  action  that  gave  to  our  cavalrymen  such  aplomb  and 
dash. 

It  was  in  1864,  however,  under  Grant,  and  commanded  in  person  by 
Sheridan,  that  the  cavalry  gained  such  high  renown,  proving  itself  to 
be  of  the  greatest  consequence.  What  a  consociation  of  brain  and 
will,  of  courage  and  power,  of  physique  and  character,  was  wrought 
into  the  cavalry  corps  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  Kilpatrick  and 
Pleasonton,  notable  and  noted  men  —  the  latter,  especially,  a  fine  organ- 
izer ;  the  first  a  skillful,  ambitious,  and  audacious  fighter.  Farns- 
worth,  Lowell,  Putnam,  Dahlgren,  Russell,  among  many  as  worthy, 
are  names  that  flow  to  one's  pen  as  types  of  the  earlier  cavaliers  of  the 
Union,  fighting  in  Virginia. 

When  Sheridan  assumed  command,  on  the  4th  of  May,  1864,  of  the 
cavalry  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  he  found  himself  at  the  head  of  three 
divisions,  reporting  something  over  ten  thousand  effectives  for  duty. 
Its  organization  had  been  perfected  under  Stoneman  and  Pleasonton, 
and  it  had  done  some  most  excellent  service,  but  neither  of  its  earlier 
leaders  had  succeeded  in  impressing  himself  sufficiently  upon  the  army 
or  its  commanding  generals,  to  secure  that  independent  administration 
and  care  for  the  cavalry  necessary  to  make  it  a  prime  factor  in  the  cam- 
paigns which  had  taken  place.  It  had  the  preponderance  of  numbers 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  .  241 

and  u  decided  advantage  in  equipment,  but  the  Confederate  cavalry 
had  a  higher  morale,  and  had  so  far  counted  for  much  more  in  the 
operations  of  the  army  to  which  it  belonged.  Indeed,  notwithstanding 
the  gallant  deeds  of  Bayard,  Kilpatrick,  Gregg,  and  of  many  junior 
officers,  our  cavalry  was  not  in  military  eyes  "  a  thing  of  beauty  and 
a  joy  forever."  General  Hooker  once  perpetrated  the  cruel  joke  of 
declaring  he  would  offer  a  reward  for  a  dead  cavalryman,  and  Meade 
himself  told  Sheridan  it  was  no  use  talking  of  Stuart,  as  he  would  do 
as  he  pleased  anyhow  —  a  statement  which  a  short  time  later,  the  little 
commander  reversed  by  defeating  the  Confederate  cavalry  and  leaving 
its  leader  dead  on  the  field. 

There  was  incapacity  somewhere.  It  certainly  was  not  all  with 
the  cavalry,  for  the  same  men  were  plumed  with  success  when  led  by 
the  master.  Sheridan  found  over  half  the  cavalry  on  picket  duty,  with 
a  line  of  vedettes  covering  the  army  within  sight  of  the  infantry  pickets 
and  of  each  other,  and  extending  from  left  to  right  nearly  fifty  miles. 
Such  service  had  been  exacted  all  winter.  This  is  sufficient  to  prove 
that  the  bad  condition  of  the  corps  was  not  altogether  the  fault  of  its 
officers.  His  first  measure  was  to  reduce  the  picket  line,  call  in  the 
detachments,  get  extra  duty  men  returned  to  their  regiments,  secure 
remounts,  new  equipments  and  arms,  and  bend  every  energy  to  repair 
damages  and  put  the  command  in  condition  to  take  the  field  with  the 
rest  of  the  army.  In  just  one  month  from  the  day  he  took  command 
the  army  crossed  the  Rapidan,  and  from  that  time  onward  there  was 
never  a 'word  of  censure  for  the  cavalry  corps.  It  covered  the  army's 
front,  flank,  and  rear  wherever  and  whenever  it  moved,  but  it  was  no 
longer  broken  up  into  detachments  or  strung  out  on  useless  picket  lines. 
It  became  at  once  a  c6mpact  fighting  corps,  and  as  such  inflicted  con- 
stant and  irreparable  injury  upon  the  enemy.  Fighting  on  foot,  it 
assaulted  and  carried  the  enemy's  intrenched  positions,  or  held  its  own, 
whenever  occasion  required  it.  Mounted  and  moving  rapidly,  it  seized 
strategic  positions,  or  threw  itself  upon  the  enemy's  flanks  and  rear, 
broke  his  communications,  destroyed  his  transportation,  burned  his 
supplies,  threatened  his  capital,  and  finally  at  Yellow  Tavern  met  and 
overthrew  his  cavalry,  and  killed  J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  its  most  competent 
and  daring  leader. 

No  cavalry  corps  ever  did  harder  or  better  work  than  Sheridan's 
command  from  the  first  of  May  till  the  end  of  July,  1864.  It  scarcely 
ever  rested  by  daylight  from  marching  or  fighting,  and,  what  is  still 
more  curious,  its  efficiency  and  spirit  constantly  grew,  till  it  came  to 

18 


242  THE  LIFE  OF 

regard  itself  as  invincible.  Whether  by  night  or  by  day,  it  was  always 
ready,  and  responded  promptly  and  cheerfully  to  every  demand  made 
upon  it.  Whatever  despondency  was*  "elsewhere  felt,  there  was  never 
a  day  till  the  war  ended  when  Sheridan's  cavalry  did  not  go  forth  cheer- 
fully, even  gaily,  to  its  appointed  tasks.  .This  was  doubtless  due  in 
part  to  the  greater  freedom  of  action  allowed  it  by  General  Grant, 
but  it  is  simple  justice  to  add  also,  that  a  much  greater  part  of  it  was 
due  to  the  untiring  industry,  the  unflinching  courage,  the  watchful 
care,  and,  above  all,  to  the  cheerful  alacrity  with  which  General  Sheri- 
dan performed  his  own  duties,  and  inspired  every  officer  and  man  in 
his  command  to  perform  theirs. 

Sheridan  was,  at  the  time  he  commanded  the  cavalry  corps  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  in  his  thirty-third  year.  He  weighed  about  one 
hundred  and  thirty  pounds,  but  was  as  hardy  and  wiry  as  a  wild  Indian. 
Always  neatly  but  never  foppishly  dressed,  indeed,  scarcely  ever  dressed 
in  the  regulation  uniform  of  his  rank,  he  was  as  natty  and  attractive  a 
figure  as  could  be  found  in  the  whole  army.  With  a  clear  and  flashing 
eye,  a  bronzed  and  open  countenance,  an  alert  and  active  carriage,  he 
appeared  at  all  times  and  under  all  conditions  a  bright  and  cheerful 
figure,  ready  for  any  undertaking  wrhich  might  fall  to  his  lot.  He  was 
the  prince  of  subordinate  commanders,  and  by  his  unfailing  alacrity 
won  his  way  straight  to  the  confidence  of  those  in  authority  over  him. 
Knowing  well  how  to  obey,  he  was  able  also  to  command. 

The  solid  men  were  around  and  with  Sheridan.  Their  work  in 
the  Valley  of  the  Shenandoah  proved  this.  General  Averill,  as  chief 
of  staff,  established  his  reputation  in  administration,  as  well  as  fighting. 
The  disposal  of  the  somewhat  vaunted  Rosser  illustrates  the  mettle  of 
our  troopers.  The  typical  cavalry  fighting  of  the  valley  was  had  after 
Early's  defeat  at  Fisher's  Hill.  Rosser,  however,  could  not  be 
restrained.  His  force  was  greatly  outnumberejd,  but  the  feelings  of 
himself  and  men  were  excited  to  a  terrible  pitch  of  fury  by  the  awful, 
if  necessary  destruction  which  Sheridan  spread  all  over  the  Valley  of 
Virginia.  Kershaw's  division  of  cavalry,  from  Lee's  army,  arrived  at 
Early's  headquarters,  just  as  Sheridan  commenced  a  leisurely  return, 
after  Fisher's  Hill  and  its  subsequent  pursuit  down  the  valley,  to  his 
own  base  of  operations. 

It  gave  new  hope  to  the  defeated  rebels,  and  new  fury  to  Rosser's 
determination.  The  Confederate  cavalry  followed  us  down  the  valley, 
watching,  like  enraged  hawks,  for  an  occasion  to  swoop  upon  our  rear. 
They  made  constant  attacks,  not  dangerous  in  results,  but  annoying  in 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  24? 

character.  The  sturdy  Wesley  Merritt  was  watched  and  struck  at 
when  possible,  by  Lomax  and  Johnson,  while  Rosser  marked  the 
golden-haired  Custer  for  his  quarry,  striking,  however  uselessly,  with 
vindictive  tenacity.  Sheridan  at  last  decided  to  halt  one  day  and  make 
an  end  of  "this  new  cavalry  commander."  There  was  a  grim  humor 
in  this  announcement,  like  all  of  his  dispatches  of  the  period. 

The  first  night  of  the  march,  Rosser  fell  on  Custer's  camp  at  Turkey- 
town,  near  Brook's  Gap.  He  was  handsomely  repulsed.  All  the  next 
day,  as  Custer  moved  leisurely  to  Columbia  Furnace,  his  rear  guard 
was  fighting  Rosser's  advance.  The  main  body,  in  column  of  fours, 
moved  in  the  road.  To  the  right  and  left  detached  parties  burned  every 
barn  and  haystack  to  be  seen.  The  rear  guard  followed  at  a  slow  walk, 
the  greater  part  deployed  as  skirmishers.  When  the  enemy  pressed 
too  close  the  men  would  halt  and  face  about,  and  a  brisk  fusilade  would 
last  some  minutes,  till  the  advancing  "gray-backs"  were  repulsed. 
Trotting  onward,  our  rear  guard  would  halt  on  the  next  hill  or  belt  of 
woods,  to  repeat  the  operation. 

The  rear  guard  did  its  constant  fighting  under  the  brilliant  eyes  of 
its  debonair  and  dashing  commander,  Custer,  whose  gay  uniform  and 
that  of  his  staff,  with  the  bright,  brazen  instruments  of  the  field  band, 
and  the  dark  bronze  of  the  bugles  borne  in  his  group  of  orderlies  and 
attendants,  made  a  constant  figure  in  the  landscape,  lurid  with  smoke, 
bright  with  autumnal  foliage,  and  lovely  in  its  wonderful  picturesque- 
ness.  Custer's  band  was  always  a  feature  of  his  movements.  They 
might  not  be  the  best  of  players,  but  they  could  blow  "Yankee  Doodle," 
"  Rally  Round  the  Flag,  Boys,"  and  "  Glory,  Glory,  Hallelujah,"  with 
a  martial  vim,  amid  showers  of  whistling  lead,  that  gave  heart  to  the 
fighters,  if  it  did  not  win  the  plaudits  of  hypercritical  musicians.  The 
scarlet  necktie  and  golden  locks  of  Custer  were  always  followed  by  his 
band  and  buglers,  all  of  whom  showed  their  ability  at  times  to  both 
give  blows  as  well  as  to  "blow  their  own  horns."  Rosser's  men  fell 
back  when  Custer  galloped  towards  the  rear.  That  yth  of  October  was 
full  of  annoyance.  Custer  was  outnumbered,  Rosser  having  3,500 
to  our  2,500  men.  Merritt's  column  was  allowed  by  Lomax  and  John- 
son to  move  on  its  work  with  but  little  molestation.  He  had  about 
twenty-five  hundred  effectives.  General  Powell,  with  2,000  men,  was 
off  to  the  right,  following  the  Luray  Valley,  and  separated  from  the 
main  command  by  hills  and  gaps.  On  the  8th,  General  Torbett,  com- 
manding the  division,  determined  to  relieve  Custer  of  the  constant  strain 
of  Rosser's  pushing.  One  of  Merritt's  brigades  was  sent  forward  a  mile 
or  so  to  develop  Lomax. 


244  THE  LIFE  OF 

The  experience  ot  three  days  had  encouraged  the  confident  Rosser. 
Custer  had  been  steadily  falling  back  in  Jftie  face  of  a  superior  force, 
who  fancied  they  were  driving  him.  The  arrival  of  Merritt's  brigade 
checked  Rosser,  after  some  severe  fighting,  which  ceased  at  dark,  when 
Merritt  withdrew  to  his  own  camp.  That  night  "  Little  Phil  "  came 
up  to  see  how  things  were  going.  His  orders  were  brief.  "  He  must 
get  a  lesson,"  was  what  he  said  of  Rosser. 

General  To'rbett's  report  says  :  "  On  the  night  of  the  8th,  I  received 
orders  from  Major-General  Sheridan  to  start  at  daylight  and  whip  the 
rebel  cavalry,  or  get  whipped  myself."  Our  infantry  was  concentrated 
at  Strasburg ;  the  cavalry  was  to 'the  south,  in  front  of  that  place. 
Merritt  was  ordered  forward  with  three  brigades,  one  on  the  pike, 
and  two  to  the  left  of  it,  and  to  get  into  communication  with  Custer. 
The  movement  begun  at  break  o'day  has  since  been  known  as  the 
u  Woodstock  Races."  Both  commands  were  nearly  equal,  a  slight 
advantage  being  on  our  side.  Custer  had  chafed  un'der  his  position. 
Now,  side  by  side,  he  and  Merritt  —  honorable  rivals  for  honors,  com- 
rades in  a  common  cause  —  swept  out  together  to  attack  Rosser  and 
Lomax.  Rosser  was  Custer's  classmate  at  West  Point.  The  Michigander 
swooped  onward  against  the  Virginian.  On  the  pike  moved  that  steady 
old  reserve  brigade  —  "  the  regulars."  Next  to  them  was  the  Second 
(Deven's  brigade),  with  "  Old  Tommy,"  or  the  "  Old  War  Horse,"  as 
he  was  called,  at  its  head.  Then  the  Michigan  men  (Custer's  First 
Brigade)  connected  Merritt's  line  with  that  of  their  former  division. 
The  Union  line  was  perfect,  and  all  were  anxious  to  pay  off  the  enemy. 

On  the  other  side  of  Tom's  Run  —  a  little  stream  easily  passed  — our 
boys  found  Rosser  and  Lomax  in  line  of  battle  and  eager  for  the  fray. 
The.  Confederates  were  elated  and  overconfident.  Their  main  position 
was  well  chosen,  occupying  a  low  but  abrupt  range  of  hills  on  the 
south  side  of  the  little  run.  His  dismounted  men  were  strongly  posted 
behind  stone  fences  at  the  base  of  the  ridge  he  occupied.  On  the 
crown  was  a  line  of  extemporized  works,  where,  with  six  guns,  he 
waited  the  coming  attack,  and  had  the  advantage  of  seeing  all  of  Cus- 
ter's movements.  Both  sides  deployed  within  plain  view  of  each  other, 
and  the  skirmishers  opened  with  their  carbines.  Long  lines  of  horse- 
men trotted  on,  loading  as  they  went.  Batteries  galloped  up,  unlim- 
bering  on  the  first  little  knoll  that  presented  itself,  opening  fire, 
and  mingling  their  crashing  reports  with  the  sharp  crack  of  the  repeat- 
ing rifles. 

Custer  rode  from  his  staff'  out  between  the  lines,  and  taking  off  his 
sombrero,  made  a  profound  bow  to  his  antagonist  and  shouted : 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

"  Let's  have  a  fair  fight,  boys ;  no  malice." 

Rosser  said  to  his  men  : 

u  You  see  that  Yank  down  there  bowing?  Well,  that's  Custer  that 
the  Yanks  are  so  proud  of,  and  I'm  going  to  give  him  the  best  whip- 
ping he  ever  got,  —  see  if  I  don't ! " 

Again  Ouster's  hat  was  lifted,  and  the  fight  began.  The  rebel  guns 
opened  furiously  at  short  range.  The  hail  of  lead  became  heavier. 
The  trot  in  our  lines  turned  into  a  gallop.  Sabres  were  drawn.  The 
gray  steel  flashed  in  the  October  sun.  The  bugles  blared  their 
brazen  clangor.  A  loud  shout  pealed  forth,  every  throat  joining  in 
the  hoarse  outgoing.  Away  sped  our  lines.  Apparently  they  were 
but  a  whirling  confusion  of  groups,  dashing  in  isolation  and  without 
order,  on  stone  walls,  made  alive  by  curling  lines  of  blue  smoke, 
as  the  crack,  crack  of  cavalry  carbines  mingled  with  the  roar  of  field 
guns  above  and  behind  our  forward,  dashing,  roaring  lines.  The 
charge  was  a  success  :  —  Ouster's  dashes  always  were.  The  column 
deployed  in  order — one  regiment  to  the  front,  one  to  the  right,  and  the 
other  to  the  left.  u  Forward  the  line  !  "  Sabres  swinging,  away  they 
went,  striking  right  at  the  centre  and  curling  round  Rosser's  flanks,  as 
if  in  a  moment.  Before  he  knew  what  had  happened,  his  position  was 
inclosed  in  a  semicircle  of  charging  horses  and  flashing  sabres.  The 
Confederates  became  demoralized  at  once.  In  spite  of  Rosser's  every 
effort,  his  whole  line  broke  and  fled  in  the  wildest  confusion,  running 
for  two  miles,  until,  in  very  shame,  one  brigade  turned  at  Rosser's  fran- 
tic appeals,  and  succeeded  in  staying  in  an  orderly  retreat,  what  but  a 
few  moments  before  had  been  an  utterly  beaten  rabble.  A  battery  was 
got  into  position.  Ouster's  advance,  flushed  and  careless  with  victory, 
was  rudely  halted  by  its  fire  and  driven  into  momentary  confusion. 
Seizing  the  moment,  Rosser  charged  with  his  remaining  brigade  and 
forced  Custer  back  half  a  mile.  Then  a  battery  of  four  guns  made  its 
appearance,  and  again  checked  Rosser.  Disappointed  in  his  charge, 
Rosser  trusted  to  a  defensive  battle,  while  Custer  re-formed  his  three 
brigades  for  a  second  grand  charge,  and  once  more  advanced. 

It  fared  ill  with  Rosser  and  his  men  that  they  received  this  charge 
at  a  halt,  and  trusted  to  a  heavy*  fire  for  their  defense.  It  did  not  stop 
the  Union  advance  for  a  second.  Through  the  dust  and  confusion  of 
its  charge  was  seen,  far  in  advance,  another  cloud  of  dust  out  of  which 
shone  the  glittering  horseshoes,  as  the  rebel  squadrons  fled.  Behind 
them  was  nothing  but  an  open  field  as  far  as  Mount  Jackson,  twenty- 
six  miles  away.  Every  gun  opposite  Custer  was  taken,  and  only  one 


246 


THE  LIFE  OF 


of  Lomax'  escaped.  It  was  no  longer  a  fight.  The  "Woodstock 
Races"  had  begun.  All  the  way  to  jSConant  Jackson  the  Confederates 
flew  before  the  Union  soldiers  like  frightened  sheep.  The  battle  was 
over,  Custer  was  ahead,  first  and  last.  There  was  always  a  little  con- 
tention between  Merritt  and  Custer  about  it,  but  the  men  never 
doubted. 

The  Confederate  cavalry  commander,  Rosser,  was  undoubtedly  a 
brave  and  efficient  officer.  He  was  never  known,  however,  to  accept 
defeat  gracefully.  To  this  day  he  has  remained  bitter,  as  the  follow- 
ing, dated  the  4th  of  May,  1887,  and  written  to  Major  Holmes  Con- 
rad, of  Winchester,  Virginia,  will  show  : 

MY  DEAR  MAJOR  :  I  have  seen  it  reported  recently  in  the  news- 
papers that  General  P.  H.  Sheridan,  United  States  Army,  contem- 
plates, at  an  early  day,  another  ride  up  the  Shenandoah  Valley.  I  had 
hoped  that  our  beautiful  valley  would  never  again  be  desecrated  by  his 
footprints.  Cold,  cruel,  and  brutal  must  be  the  character  of  this  soldier 
who  fondly  cherishes  memories  of  the  wild,  wanton  waste  and  desola- 
tion which  his  barbarous  torch  spread  through  the  valley,  laying  in 
ashes  the  beautiful  and  happy  homes  of  innocent  women,  young  and 
helpless  children,  and  aged  men,  and  who  over  these  ruins  boasted  that 
"  now  a  crow  cannot  fly  over  this  valley  without  carrying  its  rations." 
General  Sheridan  has  done  nothing  since  the  war  to  atone  for  his  bar- 
barism during  the  war.  We  have  not  forgotten  that  during  his  reign 
in  New  Orleans  he  asked  that  our  fellow-citizens  of  Louisiana  might 
be  proclaimed  banditti  in  order  that  he  might  set  the  dogs  of  war  on 
them.  I  have  forgiven  the  brave  men  of  the  Union  armies  whom  I  met 
in  honorable  battle,  and  who  finally  triumphed  over  us  in  the  great 
struggle.  Among  them  I  can  now  name  many  of  my  warmest  and 
truest  and  most-prized  friends.  They  are  good  and  true  to  me,  and 
think  none  the  less  of  us  for  having  fought  them.  Indeed,  they  esteem 
him  highest  among  us  who  fought  them  the  hardest.  Sheridan  is  not 
one  of  this  kind,  and  he  never  accorded  to  us  that  peace  which  Grant 
proclaimed.  I  now  say  to  you,  my  dear  major,  and  to  our  gallant 
comrades  who  are  now  in  the  valley,  that  I  hope  you  will  allow  this 
man  to  make  his  triumphant  ride  up  the  valley  in  peace,  but  have  him 
go  like  the  miserable  crow,  carrying  his  rations  with  him. 

Yours  truly,  THOS.  L.   ROSSER. 

This  letter  caused  a  great  sensation,  as  it  was  written  at  the  very 
time  when  Massachusetts  soldiers  were  being  entertained  in  Richmond, 
and  was  a  rare  instance  of  a  Southern  man  of  high  standing  waving  the 
bloody  shirt.  The  leading  newspapers  North  and  South  denounced 
General  Rosser's  letter.  General  Sheridan  had  only  this  to  say  of  it : 

"  Rosser  has  not  forgotten  the  whaling  I  gave  him  in  the  valley, 
and  I  am  not  surprised  that  he  loses  his  temper  when  he  recalls  it. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  247 

Occasionally  Rosser  would  come  across  small  detachments  of  our 
troops  and  would  swoop  down  on  them.  Finally  it  was  reported  to  me 
that  General  Rosser  had  captured  my  pack  train.  This  made  me  mad. 
Halting  the  entire  army  right  in  the  road,  I  galloped  to  the  rear,  deter- 
mined to  settle  Rosser.  I  found  the  train  was  not  captured,  but  was 
coming  in  considerably  scattered  and  broken  up.  I  told  Torbett  I 
wanted  Rosser  cleaned  out,  and  that  if  he  could  not  do  it  I  would  take 
his  division  and  do  it  myself.  I  concluded  that  I  would  remain  and  see 
the  work  performed,  and  so  informed  Torbett.  The  following  morn- 
ing Torbett  went  after  Rosser,  whose  brigade  was  struck  with  an  im- 
petuosity that  caused  it  to  scatter.  We  stripped  the  enemy  of  everything 
they  had  captured ;  all  their  guns  except  one,  which  subsequently  fell 
into  our  hands,  and  all  their  baggage,  including  the  personal  effects  of 
Rosser.  It  was  a  regular  frolic  for  our  boys.  Torbett  pursued  Rosser 
a  distance  of  twenty-five  miles.  He  did  not  trouble  me  further." 

George  Armstrong  Custer  was  an  embodied  apotheosis  of  war  — 
the  very  representative  of  a  cavalry  fighter.  Like  Sheridan,  Sherman, 
and  Grant,  he  was  from  Ohio.  But  he  went  to  West  Point  from 
Michigan.  He  was  born  in  1839,  an<^  died  at  Rosebud,  Dakota,  in  1876, 
in  his  thirty-seventh  year,  slain  in  battle  by  the  Sioux  Indians.  When 
the  Rebellion  began,  Custer  was  twenty-one,  and  in  his  last  year  at  the 
military  academy.  His  was  the  class  advanced  a  year  in  its  graduation. 
Six  feet  in  height,  finely  proportioned,  small  hands  and  feet,  narrow 
hips  and  broad  shoulders,  thoroughly  abstemious  in  habits,  a  blonde  of 
the  viking  type,  with  handsome  face  and  fine  life-full  eyes,  Lieutenant 
Custer,  when  sent  for  service  in  the  field  to  McClellan's  army,  was  the 
beau  ideal  of  a  soldier.  He  weighed  in  the  vigor  of  his  service  but 
170  pounds.  His  head  and  face  were  long;  his  face  was  always  sun- 
tanned, the  eyes  were  blue,  and  the  hair  and  mustache  a  deep  gold. 
A  man  of  immense  powers  of  endurance,  mental,  as  well  as  physical, 
he  had  always  in  hand  all  his  powers.  In  '62  he  was  made  captain. 
In  '63  a  brevet  brigadier,  and  in  '64  he  was  made  a  brigadier-general  of 
volunteers.  He  was  then  in  his  twenty-fourth  year.  Before  he  was 
twenty-five  he  was  made  major-general.  After  the  war  he  was  made 
lieutenant-colonel  of  the  Seventh  Cavalry.  In  June,  '63,  he  assumed 
command  of  the  Michigan  Cavalry  Brigade,  commanding  it  at  Gettys- 
burg. He  was  wounded  at  Culpepper.  In  Sheridan's  raid  around  Rich- 
mond, May,  1864,  he  showed  especial  capacity  and  courage.  In  Sheri- 
dan's second  raid,  the  Michigan  brigade,  under  Custer,  made  a  splendid 
fight  at  Trevilian  Station.  He  was  brevetted  colonel  in  the  regular 


248  THE  LIFE  OF 

army,  September  19,  1864,  for  his  gallantry  at  Winchester,  and  for  th^at 
and  the  Fisher's  Hill  battles  he  was,  October  i9th,brevetted  major-gen- 
eral of  volunteers.  On  the  3Oth  of  September,  1864,  Custer  assumed 
command  of  his  famous  division,  and  with  it  fought  on  the  9th  of  Octo- 
ber, against  his  classmate,  General  Rosser,  the  brilliant  battle  of  Wood- 
stock. He  was  first  in  the  attack  at  Cedar  Creek.  In  the  decisive 
movements  of  the  next  year,  Custer's  division  fought  and  won  the 
battle  of  Waynesboro'.  He  was  brevetted  brigadier-general  in  the  reg- 
ular army  for  services  at  Five  Forks  and  Dinwiddie.  What  he  was  as 
a  cavalry  commander  may  be  seen  by  the  congratulatory  order  to  his 
troops,  dated  Appomattox  Court  House,  April  9,  1865,  in  which  he 
congratulates  them  on  having,  during  six  months  of  continuous  fighting, 
often  against  great  odds,  captured  in  open  battle,  1 1 1  field  guns,  sixty- 
five  battle-flags,  and  upwards  of  ten  thousand  prisoners,  including 
seven  general  officers.  He  wrote  :  "  You  have  never  lost  a  gun,  never 
lost  a  color,  and  never  been  defeated,"  and  "  have  captured  every  piece 
of  artillery  which  the  enemy  has  dared  to  open  upon  you."  Custer 
was  a  fine  writer,  and  a  man  of  varied  resources.  The  stories  told  of 
him  are  interesting.  How  he  attracted  men  can  be  seen  in  the  follow- 
ing incident,  which  brought  him  to  McClellan's  notice  : 

On  the  22d  of  May,  1862,  McClellan's  army  had  arrived  at  the  banks 
of  the  Chickahominy,  some  seven  miles  north  of  Richmond.  No  one 
knew  anything  of  the  river's  depth.  General  Barnard,  chief  engineer, 
started  oft'  at  once  to  reconnoitre.  Custer  being  oft'  staff  duty,  hap- 
pened to  be  around,  and  not  knowing  who  he  was,  Barnard  beckoned 
him  to  come  along.  When  they  got  through  the  swamps  along  the 
shore,  and  came  to  the  river,  General  Barnard  said  to  the  subordinate  : 
"Jump  in."  The  order  was  instantly  obeyed,  and  Custer  forded  the 
stream,  expecting  every  minute  to  be  fired  upon  by  the  enemy's  pickets 
on  the  other  side.  All  around  was  quite  unknown,  and  he  had  drawn 
his  revolver  and  held  it  up  over  his  head  (he  was  up  to  his  arm-pits  in 
the  water) ,  ready  for  anything.  The  general,  in  his  report,  called  it 
u  firm  bottom,"  but  as  he  did  not  wade  in  himself,  it  was  not  very 
technical.  Custer  got  over  to  the  other  side,  and  hunted  through  the 
bushes,  and  all  along  the  beach,  until  Barnard,  becoming  nervous,  made 
signals  for  him  to  return.  They  were  ignored  until  the  lieutenant 
satisfied  himself  there  was  no  enemy  around.  He  then  forded  back. 
Barnard  was  so  pleased  that  he  ordered  Custer  to  attend  him  to  head- 
quarters. The  lieutenant  had  been  in  Washington  the  winter  before, 
and  spent  all  his  money.  He  was  shabbily  clothed  —  indeed,  rags  were 


GEN.  PHIL.   H.  SHERIDAN.  249 

to  be  seen  —  and,  muddy  and  dripping,  made  a  poor  figure  among  the 
showy  ones  of  the  little  Napoleon's  staff.  The  stuff  that  was  in  him 
put  all  that  aside.  McClellan  questioned  the  growing  soldier,  and  ended 
by  asking  him  to  accept  a  position  on  his  staff.  Till  the  day  of  his 
death,  McClellan  was  first  in  Ouster's  affections. 

In  a  very  short  time  he  received  his  appointment,  and  became  Cap- 
tain Custer.  He  now  begged  to  be  allowed  to  take  over  some  men 
and  capture  the  pickets  on  the  other  bank  of  the  river.  At  the  time 
appointed,  in  the  gray  of  the  morning,  he  found  his  detail  waiting,  and 
rode  down  to  the  Chickahominy.  As  the  light  grew  stronger,  he  sud- 
denly heard  some  one  say:  "Well,  I  want  to  know!  Ain't  that 
Custer?  "  "  Why,  by  gracious,  it's  Armstrong  !  How  are  you,  Arm- 
strong? Give  us  your  fist,  old  fellow."  He  had  by  a  strange  chance 
fallen  into  the  midst  of  Company  A,  Fourth  Michigan  Infantry,  a 
company  raised  at  Monroe,  his  own  home,  and  composed  of  all  his  old 
schoolmates. 

"  Well,  boys,  I  am  glad  to  see  you  ;  you  don't  know  how  glad.  But 
I'll  tell  you  I'm  too  busy  to  talk  now,  except  to  say  this  :  All  Mon- 
roe boys  follow  me.  Stick  to  me  and  I'll  stick  to  you  !  Come  !  " 

And  he  rode  into  the  water,  followed  by  cries  of  "  That's  us,  Arm- 
strong," uYou  bet  we'll  follow."  And  they  did  —  and  Custer  captured 
that  morning  the  first  Confederate  battle-flag  taken  by  a  force  of  the 
Army  of  the  Potomac. 

During  one  of  the  movements  across  the  Rappahannock,  Custer. 
commanding  the  Michigan  brigade,  found  himself  suddenly  cut  off 
from  the  main  command  by  a  body  of  5,000  u  gray -backs."  Custer 
looked  at  them  for  a  few  seconds  with  his  peculiar  planning  glance, 
and  then  shouted,  rising  in  his  stirrups  and  waving  his  hat  above  his 
head  : 

"  Boys  of  Michigan,  there  are  some  people  between  us  and  home. 
I'm  going  home  !  who  else  goes?  " 

They  all  went,  of  course,  following  Custer's  yellow  locks,  cleaving 
a  clear  path  right  through  the  enemy.  When  they  came  "out  of  the 
woods, "Kilpatrick,  the  division  commander,  rode  up  and  asked  :  "  Cus- 
ter, what  ails  you?"  "Oh,  nothing,"  said  Custer;  "only  we  want 
to  cook  our  coffee  on  the  Yank  side  of  the  Rappahannock,  and  not  at 
Libby  and  Andersonville." 

When,  on  the  nth  of  May,  1864,  the  Union  cavalry  corps  was 
within  four  miles  of  Richmond  on  the  Brook's  pike,  Custer  was  in  the 
advance.  It  was  in  this  campaign  that  Sheridan  or  Torbett  commenced 


250  THE  LIFE  OF 

the  practice  of  giving  Custer  the  advance,  knowing  he  would  not  fail 
them.  The  fight  was  soon  on,  and  h^tly,  too.  Stuart  was  in  Sheri- 
dan's front,  determined  to  stay  his  advance.  It  was  in  the  engagement 
that  swiftly  ensued  that  the  Confederate  cavalry  leader  was  slain. 
Here  is  the  story  : 

On  reaching  some  woods  to  his  front,  Custer  ordered  Colonel 
Alger,  of  Michigan,  to  establish  the  Fifth  and  Sixth  Michigan  Cavalry 
upon  a  line  near  the  skirt  of  the  woods,  and  hold  his  position  till  fur- 
ther orders.  Being  so  ordered,  Alger,  with  his  Fifth  Michigan,  drove 
the  enemy  through  the  timber  to  the  opening.  Then  the  order  was 
given  to  cease  firing.  Just  at  that  instant,  a  Confederate  officer,  who 
afterward  proved  to  be  General  J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  rode  up  with  his  staff 
to  within  four  hundred  yards  of  the  line,  when  a  man  of  the  Fifth  fired 
at  him.  John  A.  Huff',  of  Company  A,  remarked  :  "  Tom,  you  fired 
too  low  "  ;  and  turning  to  Colonel  Alger,  who  stood  near,  he  said : 

"  Colonel,  I  can  fetch  that  man." 

"Try  him,"  said  Alger. 

Huff  took  steady  aim  over  a  fence,  and  fired.  The  officer  fell. 
Huff  turned  to  the  colonel,  and  coolly  said :  "There's  a  spread  eagle 
for  you."  Huff  was  killed  a  month  later  at  Cold  Harbor. 

A  volume  might  easily  be  filled  with  similar  stories.  Custer  stands 
in  history  as  the  ideal  American  cavalryman,  and  for  that  reason  this 
description  has  been  written,  not  with  the  idea  of  slighting  the  others, 
gallant,  able,  and  true,  who  were  his  comrades.  But  it  were  invid- 
ious still,  not  to  mention  the  men  who  made  the  Union  cavalry  so  fa- 
mous, as  well  as  so  important  an  arm  of  the  service,  teaching  thereby 
new  lessons  in  the  art  of  war. 

Major-General  Crook  deserves  especial  mention,  for  though  he 
gained  honorable  renown  as  a  corps  commander,  he  was  then  as  he 
still  is,  essentially  a  cavalry  leader.  A  classmate  and  intimate  of  Sher- 
idan himself,  it  was  good  fortune  for  both  that  brought  them  together 
again  in  the  closing  year  of  the  war.  Crootf  has  won,  by  sheer  service 
and  hard  fighting,  the  highest  rank  now  known  to  the  American  Army. 
He  comes,  next  to  Sheridan  himself,  to  the  beau  ideal  of  a  regular 
soldier.  He  is  now,  as  in  the  Civil  War,  simple,  untiring,  energetic, 
full  of  resources,  and  of  the  most  rock-bound  stubbornness  of  courage. 
Since  the  war  closed,  as  an  Indian  fighter  he  has  had  more  than  his 
share  of  hard  service  and  fighting.  His  experiences  with  the  Apaches, 
both  in  fighting  and  using  them  as  soldiers,  have  been  among  the  most 
remarkable  of  any  army  officer.  George  Crook  is  in  his  fifty-eighth 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

year ;  a  man  just  above  middle  stature,  of  remarkably  compact,  mus- 
cular frame,  and  without  superfluous  flesh.  He  is  a  gray  blonde,  with 
long  and  broad  head,  a  long  face,  with  Roman  nose,  strong  but  not 
heavy  jaw,  of  few  words,  and  possessed  of  a  pair  of  the  keenest  and 
clearest  of  gray  eyes. 

Colonel  J.  W.  Forsyth,  Brevet  Brigadier-General,  United  States 
Army,  of  the  Seventh  Cavalry,  is  another  of  Sheridan's  "  boys."  He 
was  a  classmate  of  his  old  commander,  and  was  his  intimate  friend 
and  staff' oflicer  for  years.  Forsyth  is  a  great  contrast  in  figure  and 
height  to  General  Sheridan,  but  no  two  men  ever  supplemented  each 
other  more  closely.  Forsyth  is  a  splendid  trooper.  His  brother,  G.  S. 
Forsyth,  known  far  and  wide  as  "  Sandy,"  was  a  young  staff  officer  in 
the  valley,  and  a  dashing  one,  also.  He  proved,  during  Sheridan's 
Indian  campaign  of  1868,  the  stuff' of  which  he  was  composed  by  his 
remarkable  fight  on  the  open  prairie,  with  a  very  few  companions, 
against  a  large  force  of  hostile  Indians.  Captain  Forsyth,  with  another 
officer  and  their  orderlies,  was  cut  oft'  from  the  main  command.  Sur- 
rounded on  all  sides,  without  water,  they  made  a  double  rifle-pit  with 
their  swords  and  bayonets,  and  successfully  beat  oft  the  savage  Kiowas 
for  over  two  days.  Some  of  the  party  at  least  were  killed  ;  all  were 
severely  wounded,  but  the  remainder  were  rescued  alive,  and  recov- 
ered. 

General  James  H.  Wilson,  a  young  West  Pointer  when  the  Civil 
War  began,  was  fortunate  to  be  upon  the  staff  of  Major-General  Grant 
at  the  siege  of  Vicksburg,  with  the  rank  of  lieutenant-colonel.  He 
was  early  detailed  to  duties  of  importance,  requiring  the  individual 
judgment,  generally  in  engineer  work,  and  planning  or  superintend- 
ing constructions.  In  the  Chattanooga  he  was  sent  to  Knoxville  to  give 
Burnside  a  clear  view  of  the  situation,  and  was  accompanied  on  his 
dangerous  trip  by  Charles  A.  Dana,  Assistant  Secretary  of  War,  who 
volunteered  for  the  service.  He  was,  on  Grant's  transfer  to  .the  East, 
made  a  brigadier-general,  and  under  Sheridan  commanded  a  division 
of  cavalry.  Grant  always  had  confidence  in  his  judgment,  coolness, 
and  courage.  His  military  history  up  to  the  fall  of  1864,  was  part  of 
that  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  and  its  cavalry  corps.  There  was 
then  a  necessity  to  organize  extensive  raids  in  the  Central  South.  By 
October  .of  that  year  the  pounding  and  breaking  process  had  to  be 
made  more  effectual  in  that  section.  Wilson  was  sent  to  Thomas,  with 
orders  to  remount  and  reorganize  10,000  dismounted  cavalrymen.  He 
speedily  made  them  effectives,  and  was  in  the  field  until  his  troopers 


THE  LIFE  OF 

captured  Jefferson  Davis  himself,  in  the  latter  part  of  April,  1865. 
No  more  capable  leader  was  to  be  founjd  in  the  Union  Army  than  Gen- 
eral Wilson.  He  was  not  as  brilliantly  sensational  as  Custer.  or  as 
stubbornly  indifferent  in  the  field  as  the  Pennsylvanian,  General  Gregg, 
but  he  was  a  thoroughly  competent  and  fully  trained  soldier,  who  grew 
to  the  measure  of  every  occasion.  He  showed  decided  ability  for  inde- 
pendent command  in  his  operations  through  the  Central  South. 

General  McKenzie,  the  youngest  officer  of  commanding  rank  now 
in  the  regular  army,  rose  into  great  prominence  both  as  a  cavalry 
division  and  corps  commander  with  the  Army  of  the  James,  especially 
so  in  the  closing  war  raids  and  campaign  in  Virginia.  Grant  paid 
him  what  is  a  very  remarkable  tribute,  considering  that  at  the  period; 
whereof  he  writes,  General  McKenzie  could  not  have  been  over  twenty- 
four  years  of  age  —  younger,  even,  than  Custer  :  "  I  regarded  McKen- 
zie as  the  most  promising  young  officer  of  the  war.  Graduating  at 
West  Point,  as  he  did,  during  the  second  year  of  the  war,  he  had  won 
his  way  up  to  the  command  of  a  corps  before  its  close.  This  he  did 
upon  his  own  merit  and  without  influence."*  Not  all  the  dashing  and 
competent  cavalrymen  were  from  the  regular  army,  though.  A  con- 
siderable number  came  from  the  city,  as  well  as  the  farm  ;  from  civil 
life,  as  well  as  West  Point.  There  was  Russell  A.  Alger,  of  Michigan,, 
who  looks  like  one  of  Napoleon's  marshals.  Colonel  Briggs,  of  the 
same  state,  is  another,  whose  reputation  as  regimental  commander  is 
among  the  first.  General  David  McM.  Gregg,  of  Pennsylvania,  who 
stepped  from  civil  life  into  the  command  of  a  regiment,  and  almost 
immediately  of  a  brigade,  proved  himself  to  be  one  of  the  best  of  cav- 
alry commanders.  u  Old  Steady  "  was  his  nickname,  and  he  showed 
his  cool  Scotch  blood  at  every  turn.  Another  civilian  who  proved 
that  he  had  the  making  of  a  fine  soldier,  is  Colonel  Benjamin  R. 
Grierson,  now  commanding  a  regular  cavalry  regiment,  whose  great 
raid  on  the  Mobile  and  Ohio  railroad,  in  1863,  had  so  advantageous 
an  influence  on  the  Vicksburg  campaign  of  General  Grant. 

The  names  and  memories  flock  to  the  brain,  and  are  flowing  to  the 
pen.  Averill,  gallant  soldier,  who  had  the  early  disadvantage  of  being 
associated  with  the  first  defeats  of  the  peninsula  and  under  Sigel, 
Fremont,  and  Hunter  in  the  Shenandoah,  but  who  fully  proved  his- 
capacity  when  rightly  directed.  Torbett,  too,  commander  of  Sheridan's 
first  division  when  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  moved  across  the  Rapidan  ; 

*  Memoirs,  Vol.  II.,  p.  541. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

'his  chief  of  cavalry  in  the  valley  and  on  the  march  to  City  Point  by  way 
of  Charlottesville,  against  Lee.  Sturdy  Wesley  Merritt,  swinging 
always  to  the  front,  never  failing  in  any  emergency;  chief  of  cavalry 
•on  the  final  campaign,  contesting  all  honors  with  Custer,  and  proving 
his  capacity  in  all  positions.  Brigadier-GeAeral  Merritt  has  fully  won 
.and  deservedly  wears  his  star  in  the  regular  army.  There  were  "  Old 
Tommy "  Deven  and  Davies,  both  West  Pointers,  and,  as  it  were, 
born  into  the  army.  The  canvas  crowds  with  names :  Lowell,  the 
young  and  gallant  son  of  New  England  ;  Putnam,  adding  lustre  to  an 
honored  name  ;  General  Duffie,  of  "  Little  Rhody,"  the  dashing,  gal- 
lant, and  handsome  Franco- American,  who  so  gallantly  served  his  adopted 
country  and  state.-  He  proved  himself  a  fine  cavalryman,  and  in  the 
earlier  years  of  the  war  was  quite  conspicuous.  Major  Mcf  lellan,  of 
Stuart's  staff',  in  his  life  of  that  Confederate  commander,  reports  a  severe 
fight  in  which  Colonel  A.  N.  Duffie,  then  commanding  the  First  Rhode 
Island  Cavalry,  in  1862,  was  engaged.  Colonel  Duffie  moved  out  with 
orders  for  an  extended  scout  on  the  left  flank  of  General  Gregg's 
division,  crossing  the  Bull  Run  Mountain  by  way  of  Thoroughfare  Gap. 
His  command  was  to  encamp  at  Middleburg  on  the  same  night,  but  at 
4  p.  M.  encountered  Stuart's  pickets,  and  at  once  became  engaged  in  a 
severe  fight.  The  pickets  were  followed  so  sharply  as  to  cause  Stuart 
to  fall  back  on  Rector's  cross-road.  Had  Duffie  been  well  informed 
of  what  was  in  his  front,  he  could  have  inflicted  considerable  damage 
and  got  away  safely.  He  dispatched  to  Kilpatrick  for  aid,  and  held  on, 
fighting  fiercely  for  three  hours,  till  he  was  attacked  by  Robertson's 
brigade  ;  retreated,  and  was  met  and  struck  by  Chambers.  The  won- 
der is,  says  the  Confederate  writer,  who  gives  Colonel  Duffie  great 
credit  here  and  elsewhere  for  military  skill,  as  well  as  courage,  that  he 
got  away  at  all.  The  regiment  lost  200  men,  mostly  as  prisoners,  but 
the  colonel  and  some  other  officers,  with  the  balance,  cut  their  way 
through  and  escaped.  Placed  in  command,  Duffie  was  afterwards 
taken  prisoner,  exchanged,  returned  to  the  field,  and  was  killed  in 
battle. 

One  of  the  saddest  episodes  in  one  of  these  Virginian  raids  was  the 
death  of  young  Ulric  Dahlgren.  The  rebel  press  sought  at  the  time 
to  fasten  the  odium  on  him  and  his  command  of  an  attempt  to  exe- 
cute unmilitary  orders.  Dahlgren  was  killed  within  the  environs  of 
Richmond,  and  his  body,  taken  by  the  Confederates,  was  treated  with 
gross  indignities.  It  was  asserted  that  papers  were  found  on  him 
ordering  the  burning  of  Richmond  and  the  killing  of  Mr.  Davis,  with 


254  THE  LIFE  OF 

other  acts  claimed  as  outside  the  laws  of  war.  The  following  is  the 
Southern  statement  as  to  Colonel  Dahlgren's  reputed  designs : 

"  Upon  the  body  of  Colonel  Dahlgren  were  found  papers  which 
disclosed  the  objects  of  his  expedition.  An  address  which  was  to  be 
delivered  to  his  troops,  and  which  was  signed  with  his  official  signa- 
ture, directed  that  the  city  of  Richmond  should  be  burned  and  destroyed, 
and  that  President  Davis  and  his  Cabinet  should  be  killed.  Another 
paper  containing  special  orders  and  instructions,  but  without  signature, 
made  provision  for  the  same  course  of  conduct.  Photographic  copies 
of  these  papers  were  transmitted  under  flag  of  truce  by  General  Lee  to 
General  Meade,  and  the  inquiry  was  made  whether  the  United  States 
Government  or  Colonel  Dahlgren's  superior  officers  approved  or  sanc- 
tioned such  orders." 

In  his  reply,  General  Meade  denied  that  the  United  States  Govern- 
men,  himself,  or  General  Kilpatrick  had  authorized,  sanctioned,  or 
approved  the  burning  of  the  city  of  Richmond  and  the  killing  of  Mr. 
Davis  and  Cabinet,  or  any  other  act  not  required  by  military  necessity 
and  in  accordance  with  the  usages  of  war.  General  Kilpatrick  further 
stated  that  the  officers  of  Colonel  Dahlgren's  command  all  testify  that 
he  issued  no  address  whatever.  General  Kilpatrick  added  : 

"  Colonel  Dahlgren,  one  hour  before  we  separated  at  my  head- 
quarters, handed  me  an  address  that  he  intended  to  read  to  his  com- 
mand. The  paper  was  endorsed  in  red  ink  '  approved '  over  my 
official  signature.  The  photographic  papers  referred  to  are  true  copies 
of  the  papers  approved  by  me,  save  so  far  as  they  speak  of  exhorting 
the  prisoners  to  destroy  and  burn  the  hateful  city,  and  kill  the  traitor 
Davis  and  his  Cabinet,  and  in  this,  that  they  do  not  contain  the  endorse- 
ment referred  to  as  having  been  placed  by  me  on  Colonel 'Dahlgren's 
papers.  The  colonel  received  no  orders  from  me  to  pillage,  burn,  and 
kill,  nor  were  any  such  instructions  given  me  by  my  superiors." 

It  was  expected  or  hoped  that  Dahlgren's  command  might  reach 
Libby  Prison,  Castle  Thunder,  and  Belle  Isle.  The  real  address  was 
prepared  in  expectation  of  the  colonePs  having  the  power  to  send  it  in 
by  spies  and  other  means.  The  denied  portions  thereof  were  undoubt- 
edly interpolated  in  order  to  re-fire  the  u  Southern  heart"  and  arouse 
hostility  to  the  Union  in  the  North.  It  was  a  ruse  that  failed,  however. 

An  idea  of  the  service  and  of  the  importance  it  held  may  be  seen  in 
the  service  rendered  chiefly  by  the  cavalry.  The  importance  of  the 
cavalry  in  destroying  lines  of  railroad  communication  was  first  sharply 
demonstrated  by  Sheridan  himself  at  Booneville,  Mississippi.  It  was 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  25^ 

really  an  enlarged  use  of  this  branch  of  an  army.  Grierson  came  next, 
and  his  raid  was  of  greater  importance.  On  the  Confederate  side, 
Forrest,  Wheeler,  Morgan,  and  Duke  were  giving  evidence  of  der 
structive  capacity.  Sheridan  followed  again,  and  then  Sherman's 
forces  demonstrated  their  power.  Grant  describes  the  process  of  rail- 
road destruction  as  follows,  while  speaking  chiefly  of  Sherman's  move- 
ments : 

k'  Soldiers  to  do  this  rapidly  would  form  a  line  along  side  of  the 
road  with  crowbars  and  poles,  place  these  under  the  rails  and  ties,  and, 
hoisting  all  at  once,  turn  over  many  rods  of  road  at  one  time.  The 
ties  would  then  be  placed  in  piles,  and  the  rails  as  they  would  be 
loosened,  would  be  carried  and  put  across  these  log  heaps.  When 
a  sufficient  number  of  rails  were  placed  upon  a  pile  of  ties  it  would  be 
set  on  fire.  This  would  heat  the  rails  very  much  more  in  the  middle, 
that  being  over  the  main  part  of  the  fire,  than  at  the  ends,  so  that  they 
would  naturally  bend  of  their  own  weight;  but  the  soldiers,  to 
increase  the  damage  would  take  tongs,  and  one  or  two  men  at  each 
end  of  the  rail,  carry  it  with  force  against  the  nearest  tree  and  twist  it 
around.  All  this  work  went  on  at  the  same  time,"  as  a  rule. 
"  Some  piled  the  logs  and  built  the  fire  ;  while  others  would  bend  the 
rails  that  were  sufficiently  heated ;  so  that,  by  the  time  the  last  bit  of 
road  was  torn  up,  that  it  was  destined  to  destroy  at  a  certain  place,  the 
rails  previously  taken  up  were  already  destroyed."* 

So  we  might  go  on  describing  and  illustrating.  Some  one  should 
write  the  story  in  full  of  the  cavalry  service  of  the  United  States.  In 
these  pages  the  endeavor  is  made  to  give  a  glimpse,  at  least,  of  the 
"troopers"  who  served  with  "  Little  Phil,"  as  well  as  of  the  general 
himself.  The  early  technical  soldierly  advantages  were  at  first  with  the 
Confederates  in  the  cavalry  organization.  The  Union  side  presented 
its  quality  more  slowly,  but  its  technique,  courage,  capacity,  and  endur- 
ance were  superb  when  it  swung  into  action.  And  to  it  all,  as  the 
scenes  rise  at  Memory's  command,  may  it  not  be  said  with  Shakespeare  : 

4 'Oh,  farewell! 

Farewell  the  neighing  steed  and  the  shrill  trump, 
The  spirit-stirring  drum,  the  ear-piercing  fife, 
The  royal  banner;  and  all  quality, 
Piide,  pomp,  and  circumstance  of  glorious  war. 
And  O,  you  mortal  engines,  whose  rude  throats 
The  immortal  Jove's  dread  clamors  counterfeit, 
Farewell." 

*  Grant's  Memoirs,  Vol.  II.,  p.  362. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


FROM  THE  VALLEY  TO  CITY  POINT. 

HOW  SHERIDAN  WENT  BACK  TO  GRANT  —  CLEARING  THE  LOUDOUN  AND  LURAY 
VALLEYS  —  GREAT  IMPORTANCE  OF  SHERIDAN'S  NEW  ORDERS  —  GRANT 
PREPARING  FOR  THE  LAST  FIGHTS  —  THE  UPPER  SHENANDOAH  LEFT  FREE 

OF  A  FOE  —  CUSTER'S  BOLD  FIGHT  FOR  ROCKFORD  GAP  —  EARLY' s  ROUT  AND 

DISAPPEARANCE  —  SURRENDER  OF  CHARLOTTESVILLE  —  DESTRUCTION  OF 
THE  JAMES  RIVER  CANAL  —  BURNING  BRIDGES  —  BLOWING  UP  LOCKS  —  DE- 
STROYING RAILROADS  —  PANIC  IN  RICHMOND  —  CONFEDERATE  GOVERNMENT 
READY  TO  TAKE  HORSE-BACK  —  AT  CITY  POINT  —  GRANT'S  ORDERS  —  SHERI- 
DAN'S  DESIRE  TO  "  END  THE  BUSINESS  RIGHT  HERE"  —  THE  WAY  TO  FIVE 
FORKS. 

THE  winter  came  on  apace  after  Rosser  was  disposed  of.  Early, 
whirling  down  the  valley,  obtained  no  delay  by  Rosser's  aid.  The 
chill  days  were,  however,  made  warm  enough  to  horse  and  man  by  the 
constant  activity  the  Confederate  cavalry  steadily  displayed.  Sheridan 
had  disposed  of  a  major  part  of  his  infantry.  Wright  and  the  Sixth  Corps 
were  returned  to  the  army  around  Petersburg.  The  Ninth  was  sent  to 
other  duty.  Crook,  with  the  Nineteenth  Corps,  was  kept  in  the  Shen- 
andoah Valley.  The  men  thereof  were  nearly  all  West  Virginians. 
Averill's  fine  cavalry  division  was  of  the  same  material,  and  remained 
with  Crook. 

The  Valley  of  the  Shenandoah  runs  from  Harper's  Ferry,  on  the 
Potomac,  south  by  west,  to  the  extreme  corner  of  the  Old  Dominion, 
in  that  direction.  Its  west  flank  is  the  Shenandoah  and  Alleghany 
Mountains  proper,  and  its  eastern  flank  is  made  from  the  Blue  Ridge 
range,  on  the  east  side  of  which  are  the  rich  fields  of  the  Loudoun  Val- 
ley, and  the  more  picturesque  one  of  Luray.  The  whole  of  Sheridan's 
fighting  occurred  in  the  upper  valley,  until  after  Early's  last  defeat  at 
Strasburg  and  beyond.  Lynchburg  lies  about  eighty  miles  south  by 
east  of  Winchester.  It  is  about  sixty  miles  west,  by  ten  south,  of  Rich- 
mond. Topographically,  it  lies  about  ten  miles  east  of  the  southern 
spurs  of  the  Blue  Ridge. 

On  the  24th  of  November,  1864,  Sheridan  started  General  Wesley 

17 


2$8  THE  LIFE  OF 

Merritt  on  an  extended  raid,  for  the  purpose  of  destroying  supplies, 
and  preventing  the  concentration  oft  ariy  rebel  forces  to  the  east.  He 
left  Winchester  on  the  28th,  and  moved  east  through  Ashby's  Gap,  in 
the  Blue  Ridge,  towards  Fairfax  Court  House,  and  thence  to  Centre- 
ville,  Manassas,  and  other  points  easterly  and  north,  attacking  and 
driving  Moseby's  force,  who  made  this  region  their  chief  field  of  oper- 
ations, returning  to  Winchester  by  the  3d  of  December,  through  the 
Snicker  Gap,  and  by  way  of  Berryville. 

On  the  1 9th  of  December  General  Torbett's  division,  in  two  col- 
umns, passed  eastward  by  Stormy  Point  and  Chester  Gap,  sweeping  a 
large  circle,  by  way  of  Front  Royal  on  its  northern  arc,  and  Madison 
Court  House  on  its  southern,  and  uniting  at  Gordonsville,  below  the 
famous  battle-field  of  Spottsylvania.  They  reached  that  point  on  the 
23d,  and  returning,  marched  northward  to  Culpepper  and  Warrenton. 
The  division  again  took  different  routes,  one  column  returning  by  way 
of  Salem  to  Winchester,  and  the  other  by  White  Plains  and  Middle- 
bury  to  Paris,  and  thence  to  headquarters.  A  glance  at  the  map  of 
Virginia  will  show  the  object  of  these  expeditions,  which  were  with- 
out any  serious  fighting,  but  damaging  to  the  enemy,  nevertheless. 

Over  a  month  passed  in  the  valley  without  raids  or  expeditions  of 
any  import  on  either  side.  Grant  —  drawing  tighter  the  huge  meshes 
of  the  great  net  that  slowly  gathered  about  Richmond,  the  mouth  of 
which  he  himself  held  on  the  James  River,  at  Petersburg  and  Bermuda 
Hundred,  while  Sherman  was  slowly  but  surely  compressing  the 
southern  folds,  being  about  to  make  his  notable  Christmas  gift  to  the 
Nation  in  the  capture  of  Savannah,  Georgia, —  grew  more  anxious  to 
complete  the  necessary  work  of  isolating  destruction  which  remained 
to  be  done  to  the  immediate  west  of  Richmond. 

General  Grant,  in  his  Memoirs,*  shows  the  importance  of  Sheridan's 
position  and  impending  action  by  the  following  review  of  the  general 
situation  and  the  orders  to  the  commander  of  the  Middle  Department : 

"  By  the  first  of  February  all  preparations  were  completed  for  the 
final  march  (Sherman's),  Columbia,  South  Carolina,  being  the  first 
objective  ;  Fayetteville,  North  Carolina,  the  second ;  and  Goldsboro', 
or  neighborhood,  the  final  one,  unless  something  further  should  be 
determined  upon.  The  right  wing  went  from  Pocotaligo,  and  the  left 
from  Hardeeville  on  the  Savannah  River,  both  columns  taking  a  pretty 
direct  route  for  Columbia.  The  cavalry,  however,  was  to  threaten 
Charleston  on  the  right,  and  Augusta  on  the  left. 

*Vol.  II.,  pp.  408-9. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  2^9 

"  On  the  1 5th  of  January,  Fort  Fisher  had  fallen,  news  of  which 
Sherman  had  received  before  starting  out  on  his  march.  We  already 
had  New  Bern,  and  soon  had  Wilmington,  whose  fall  followed  that  of 
Fort  Fisher  ;  as  did  other  points  on  the  sea  coast,  where  the  national 
troops  were  in  readiness  to  cooperate  with  Sherman's  advance  when 
he  had  passed  Fayetteville. 

"  On  the  1 8th  of  January,  I  ordered  Canby,  in  command  at  New 
Orleans,  to  move  against  Mobile,  Montgomery,  and  Selma,  Alabama, 
for  the  purpose  of  destroying  roads,  machine  shops,  etc." 

The  cavalry  leaders,  Kilpatrick  and  Grierson,  were  already  in  the 
field  and  at  work,  destroying  and  capturing;  while  General  James  H. 
Wilson,  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  had  been  sent  with  his  cavalry 
division  to  move  in  conjunction  with  these  great  operations,  through 
and  across  the  Central  South.  General  Grant  continues : 

"  On  the  8th  of  February,  I  ordered  Sheridan,  who  was  in  the  Val- 
ley of  Virginia,  to  push  forward  as  soon  as  the  weather  would  permit 
and  strike  the  canal  west  of  Richmond  at  or  about  Lynchburg ;  and  on 
the  2oth  I  made  the  order  to  go  to  Lynchburg  as  soon  as  the  roads 
would  permit,  saying : 

"  '  As  soon  as  it  is  possible  to  travel,  I  think  you  will  have  no  diffi- 
culty about  reaching  Lynchburg  with  a  cavalry  force  alone.  From 
there  you  could  destroy  the  railroad  and  canal  in  every  direction,  so  as 
to  be  of  no  further  use  to  the  rebellion.  .  .  .  This  additional  raid, 
with  one  starting  from  East  Tennessee  under  Stoneman,  numbering 
from  four  to  five  thousand  cavalry  ;  one  from  Eastport,  Mississippi,  ten 
thousand  cavalry  ;  Canby,  from  Mobile  Bay,  with  about  eighteen  thou- 
sand mixed  troops  —  these  three  latter  pushing  for  Tuscaloosa,  Selma, 
and  Montgomery  ;  and  Sherman  with  a  large  army  eating  out  the  vitals 
of  South  Carolina — is  all  that  is  wanted  to  leave  nothing  for  the  rebel- 
lion to  stand  upon.  I  would  advise  you  to  overcome  great  obstacles  to 
accomplish  this.  Charleston  was  evacuated  on  Tuesday  last.'  ' 

In  preparation  for  the  move  on  Lynchburg  direct,  or  by  the  James 
canal,  back  to  City  Point,  Sheridan  sent  out  his  scouts,  with  detach- 
ments from  the  cavalry  regiments  to  scour  the  country  for  guerrillas, 
who  were  harassing  our  lines.  This  force  marched  160  miles  in  fifty- 
five  hours,  and  brought  in  as  captive  the  noted  guerrilla,  Colonel  Harry 
Gilmore,  and  twenty  of  his  followers,  with  about  one  hundred  horses, 
besides  having  given  a  severe  drubbing  to  the  balance  of  the  Confed- 
erate partisans. 


26o  THE  LIFE  OF 

Winter  quarters  in  the  valley  had  jDeen,  on  the  whole,  ot  an  attractive 
character  for  our  cavalry.  The  six.  vw<eeks  of  needed  rest  preceding 
this,  the  last  of  Sheridan's  extended  raids,  had  been  spent  in  the  crisp, 
cold  winter  days  of  that  delightful  region.  Veteran  troopers  still 
speak  of  their  last  winter  in  that  field  with  pleasurable  associations. 
Men  and  horses  were  alike  in  good  condition,  both  well  fed,  and  the 
men  well  clothed,  and  prepared  for  a  severe  campaign.  The  fine, 
clear  cold  of  a  Virginia  mid-winter  vanished  before  the  buglers' 
"  boots  and  saddles,"  and  it  was  a  cheerless  and  chilly  morning,  with 
a  cold,  mizzling  rain,  that  greeted  the  column  when  Sheridan  moved 
out  of  Winchester  on  the  zyth  of  February,  1865.  His  force  consisted 
of  the  First  Cavalry  Division,  under  Merritt,  the  Third,  under  Custer, 
and  a  brigade  from  AverilPs  division,  consisting  of  three  West  Vir- 
ginia regiments,  under  Colonel  Capehart.  General  Merritt  serving 
Sheridan  as  chief  of  staff,  his  division  passed  under  the  command 
of  General  "  Tommy  "  Deven.  The  small  army  was  in  light  march- 
ing order,  with  only  four  days'  rations  of  bread  and  meat  stuffs,  and  a 
larger  supply  of  coffee,  etc.,  and  ammunition. 

The  Union  columns  marched  steadily  up  the  romantic  valley,  passing 
scores  of  little  villages  without  halting,  leaving  their  destination  in 
doubt  to  the  curious  residents,  whether  unfriendly  or  otherwise.  Their 
first  objective  point  was  Charlottesville,  some  sixty  miles  south  by  east 
of  Winchester.  Moving  by  way  of  Staunton,  they  crossed  the  Blue 
Ridge  by  Rockford  Gap,  at  Mount  Crawford.  On  the  middle  fork  ot 
the  Shenandoah  River,  just  above  Staunton,  the  Confederate  Rosser 
was  encountered,  prepared  with  a  small  force  to  dispute  the  passage  of 
the  mountain  stream.  By  a  swift  dash  Colonel  Capehart  secured  the 
bridge,  driving  Rosser  across  in  great  confusion.  The  column  moved 
on  to  Staunton,  and  Custer  was  thrown  forward  in  advance  to  seize 
Rockford  Gap. 

At  Waynesboro',  on  the  west  side  of  the  ridge,  Early  was  found 
strongly  intrenched  with  a  force  of  2,500  men.  He  had  ostentatiously 
boasted  that  Sheridan  should  never  be  permitted  to  pass  through  Rock- 
ford  Gap.  But  Custer  was  in  his  front,  sweeping  all  before  him,  and 
without  waiting  for  supports,  the  golden-maned  trooper  fell  upon 
Early 's  lines.  This  was  on  the  zd  of  March.  Early 's  intrenchments 
were  strong,  but  Custer  was  soon  inside  them.  Some  fierce  fighting 
ensued,  the  Union  troopers  charging  boldly  up  to  the  earthworks  and 
leaping  their  horses  over  them.  The  Confederates  met  them  as  boldly, 
with  bayonet  and  clubbed  rifles,  but  the  invincible  Michiganders  and 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  261 

others  of  Custer's  following,  swept  onward,  actually  wiping  out  Early's 
command.  There  remained  1,600  prisoners  in  our  hands,  with  eleven 
field  guns,  seventeen  battle-flags,  and  a  train  of  200  loaded  wagons. 
Early  had  been  acting  for  ten  weeks  or  so  as  the  commissary  guard  ot 
Richmond  and  Lee.  It  was  on  this  raid  that  Custer  captured  the  gun 
which  some  rebel  wag  had  marked  in  this  wise  :  "  For  General  Phil. 
H.  Sheridan,  U.  S.  A.,  care  of  General  Jubal  A.  Early,  C.  -S.  A." 
,  This  defeat  of  Early  finished  his  career  as  a  military  commander,  which, 
however,  was,  on  the  whole,  a  creditable  one.  Custer  moved  forward 
at  once,  until  he  was  in  possession  of  the  disputed  gap.  It  is  estimated 
that  at  least  a  million  dollars  in  military  stores  found  at  Waynesboro', 
were  destroyed  by  our  forces.  The  region  round  about  and  eastward 
of  the  gap  had  been  almost  entirely  free  from  our  raids.  All  grain 
and  forage  supplies  were  destroyed,  and  the  cattle  were  driven  ofl 
or  killed. 

The  author  of  Sabre  and  Spurs  says  :  "  The  enemy  fled.  This 
was  the  last  seen  of  Rosser  and  his  cavalry  of  which  he  had  boasted  so 
much  when  he  came  into  the  valley  the  preceding  autumn  '  to  clean 
Phil.  Sheridan  up.'  The  destruction  so  systematically  accomplished  by 
Sheridan  was  not  unrecognized  in  its  true  character.  Those  who  were 
Union  citizens  had  to  suffer  with  the  rest,  for,  as  one  of  these  said,  '  It 
you  do  not  burn  my  grain  the  rebels  will  take  it  when  they  come  this 
way  ;  and  I  will  help  you.'  At  the  same  time  he  lit  a  match  and  set  fire 
to  the  only  stack  of  wheat  he  had,  and  had  depended  upon  to  feed 
himself  and  family." 

The  Union  column  moved  across  the  Blue  Ridge  on  the  night  of 
the  3d  of  March,  amid  a  cold  and  drenching  rain,  through  which  the 
vedettes  could  barely  see  a  dozen  yards  in  advance  of  them.  The  road 
was  rugged  and  quite  precipitous.  There  was  reason  to  anticipate 
resistance  at  some  point  as  we  moved  forward.  But  none  came,  and  the 
morning  broke  with  the  splendid  little  army  under  Sheridan  on  the 
east  of  the  ridge,  at  a  point  considerably  south  of  any  that  our  troopers 
had  heretofore  penetrated.  The  ammunition  and  pontoon  trains  were 
left  behind  to  be  brought  over  more  leisurely,  while  Sheridan  pushed 
rapidly  toward  Charlottesville,  which  place  he  occupied  at  2  p.  M.  of 
the  4th,  the  authorities  meeting  him  in  advance  of  his  entrance  and 
surrendering  without  resistance.  The  two  days  occupied  in  waiting 
for  the  heavy  trains  were  employed  by  our  troops  in  destroying  all  sup- 
plies, the  railroad  bridges,  depots,  factories,  and  other  valuable  works 
useful  to  the  Confederates.  The  railroad  was  rendered  entirely  useless 
for  eight  miles  in  the  direction  of  Lynchburg. 


262  THE  LIFE  OF 

Information  received  through  his  scouts,  coupled  with  the  heavy 
rains  which  had  so  swollen  the  streams^as  to  render  his  pontoons  use- 
less —  they  not  making  a  bridge  of  more  than  half  the  length  required 
—  made  Sheridan  decide  not  to  attack  Lynchburg.  which,  indeed,  was 
known  to  be  too  strongly  garrisoned  for  his  small  force  to  risk  an 
assault  upon.  He  decided,  therefore,  to  divide  his  command  and  push 
rapidly  for  the  James  River.  One  column,  under  General  Deven,  was 
pressed  to  Scottsville,  in  Albemarle  County,  and  the  other  through  Lov- 
ingston,  to  the  same  stream  at  New  Market,  in  Nelson  County.  Cus- 
ter's  column  then  proceeded  along  the  canal  to  Duguidsville,  hoping 
there  to  find  a  bridge,  and  cross  the  James,  but  the  Confederates  had 
burned  it.  They  also  destroyed  one  at  Hardwicksville.  Sheridan's 
pontoons  could  not  span  the  river  at  either  point.  He  was  thus  com- 
pelled to  choose  whether  to  return  to  Winchester,  or  to  pass  behind 
Lee's  army  to  White  House,  and  thence  to  the  Army  of  the  James, 
on  Grant's  right  and  to  the  north  of  his  main  position.  Sheridan 
chose  the  latter  course,  and  proceeding  eastward,  destroyed  the  James 
River  canal  as  he  went.  It  was  then  the  chief  channel  of  supplies  for 
Richmond.  The  banks  of  the  canal  were  blown  up,  and  the  locks 
destroyed  as  far  as  Columbia.  All  the  canal  bridges  were  burned. 

In  a  dispatch,  dated  March  roth,  Sheridan  said:  "  Everybody  is 
bewildered  by  our  movements." 

He  did  not  know  it  then,  but  his  operations  were  again  producing  the 
greatest  consternation  in  "  Richmond  on  the  James."  The  Confederate 
government  prepared  itself  for  a  sudden  and  rapid  departure.  The 
records,  treasure,  etc.,  were  all  prepared  for  removal,  great  care  being 
taken  in  the  manufacture  of  boxes,  etc. ,  to  prevent  the  facts  being  known, 
so  as  to  avoid  a  panic.  The  families  of  officials  packed  for  a  southward 
journey.  Lee  hastened  to  Richmond  from  Petersburg,  to  hold  close  con- 
sultations with  Davis  and  the  Confederate  Cabinet.  His  own  family,  who 
were  living  on  Franklin  Square,  not  far  from  the  capitol,  also  made  prepa- 
rations for  an  early  departure.  Chief  Clerk  Jones,  of  the  Confederate  State 
Department,  in  noting  these  facts  in  his  valuable  diary,  under  date  of 
March  7th,  says  :  "  A  large  percent,  of  the  population  would  behold 
the  exodus  with  pleasure  !"  Again  he  says,  that  on  the  night  after 
Sheridan's  arrival  at  Columbia,  the  government  was  so  frightened 
by  a  rumor  that  the  bold  trooper  was  at  the  outer  fortifications  of  the 
city,  that  "  Secretary  Mallory  and  Postmaster-General  Reagan  were  in 
the  saddle,  and  rumor  says  that  the  President  and  remainder  of  the 
Cabinet  had  their  horses  saddled  in  readiness  for  flight."  The  rebel 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 


263 


Congress  was  very 
nervous.  Davis 
persuaded  them  not 
to  adjourn,  as  the 
members  wished, 
in  order  to  fly,  on 
the  plea  "  that  pub- 
lic necessity  re- 
quired them  to 
remain  as  long  as 
possible." 

Halting  in  Co- 
lumbia for  a  day, 
during  which, 
however,  the  canal 
was  destroyed  east- 
ward, as  far  as 
Goochland,  not 
over  ten  miles  from 
Richmond,  Sheri- 
dan turned  north- 
east with  his  whole 
command,  striking 
the  Virginia  Cen- 
tral railroad,  at 
Tolersville.  This 

important  line  was  utterly  destroyed  for  fifteen  miles,  and  as  far  south  as 
Beaver  Dam  Station.  Custer  in  one  direction,  and  Deven  in  another, 
made  complete  destruction  of  the  railway,  its  culverts  and  bridges.  They 
destroyed  all  supplies  in  the  rear  of  Lee's  army,  thus  inflicting  another 
fatal  blow  upon  the  Confederacy.  General  Sheridan  having  done  his 
work  thoroughly,  swept  around  by  the  Pamunkey  River  and  White 
House,  and  joined  the  besieging  army  on  the  26th  of  March.  His 
command  had  swept  out  of  existence  the  Confederate  power  in  Vir- 
ginia to  the  north  of  Richmond.  He  had  disabled  full  two  hundred 
miles  of  railroad,  destroyed  all  their  bridges,  and  great  quantities  of 
stores,  inflicting  a  loss  of  many  millions  of  dollars  upon  the  already 
weakened  foe.  His  campaign  was  most  potential  in  demoralizing  the 
Confederate  soldiers,  and  disheartening  the  whole  Southern  people. 

In  his  report  of  this  raid  General  Sheridan  said  :     "The  first  and 


GEN.  THOMAS 


DEVEN, 


THE  GALLANT   COMMANDER   OF   THE   SECOND   BRIGADE,    FIRST   DIVISION, 
SHERIDAN'S   CAVALRY  CORPS. 


264  THE  LIFE  OF 

second  cavalry  division,  which  belonged  to  the  Army  of  the  Shenan- 
'doah  had  marched  in  midwinter  over  three  hundred  miles,  in  constant 
rains,  over  almost  impassable  roads,  aridlwollen  streams,  to  participate 
in  the  campaign,  and  were  rewarded  by  the  honor  of  having  the  flag  of 
the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  presented  to  them  on  the  morning  of 
the  surrender.  .  .  .  There  perhaps  never  was  a  march  where 
nature  offered  such  impediments  and  shrouded  herself  in  such  gloom  : 
incessant  rain,  deep  and 'almost  impassable  streams,  swamps  and  mud, 
—  all  overcome  with  constant  cheerfulness  on  the  part  of  the  troops. 
Officers  and  men  were  buoyed  up  by  the  thought  that  we  had  com- 
pleted our  work  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  and  were  on  our  way  to' 
help  our  brothers  in  arms  in  front  of  Petersburg  in. the  final  struggle." 

The  results  of  the  campaign  were,  tk  besides  the  destruction  of  the 
canal,  bridges,  etc.  :  prisoners,  1,603  ;  horses  and  mules,  2,154  »  battle- 
flags,  16  ;  pieces  of  artillery,  i"y  ;  small  arms,  2,010.  Our  loss  from 
Winchester  to  White  House  did  not  exceed  one  hundred  men,  and  some 
of  these  we  left  by  the  wayside,  unable  to  bear  the  fatigues  of  the  march. 
The  host  of  negroes  that  came  into  our  lines  was  sent  by  steamer  to 
Washington."  The  entire  operations  of  the  Shenandoah  Army  between 
August  i,  1864,  and  March  i,  1865,  resulted  in  the  capture  from  the  Con- 
federates of  13,000  prisoners,  101  field  guns,  twenty-four  Union  guns 
recaptured,  and  forty-nine  battle-flags,  with  many  thousand  small  arms. 
Our  losses  were:  Killed,  1,938;  wounded,  19,893:  missing.  3.421. 
We  have  no  account  of  the  Confederate  killed,  wounded,  and  missing. 

In  the  Memoirs,  Grant,  after  speaking  of  the  Waynesboro'  fight, 
says : 

"  On  the  1 2th  of  March  I  heard  from  him  [Sheridan]  again.  He 
had  turned  east  to  come  to  White  House.  He  could  not  go  to 
Lynchburg,  as  ordered,  because  the  rains  had  been  so  very  heavy,  and 
the  streams  were  so  very  much  swollen.  He  had  a  pontoon'train  with 
him,  but  it  would  not  reach  half  way  across  some  of  the'  streams,  at 
their  then  stage  of  water,  which  he  would  have  to  get  over,  in  going 
south,  as  first  ordered." 

Again  he  wrote  that  "  Sheridan  had  about  ten  thousand  cavalry 
with  him,  divided  into  two  divisions,"  and  "  moved  very  light,  carrying 
only  four  days'  provisions  with  him,  with  a  larger  supply  of  coffee, 
salt,  and  other  small  rations,  and  very  little  else  besides  ammunition. 
They  stopped  at  Charlottesville,  and  commenced  tearing  up  the  rail- 
road, back  towards  Lynchburg.  He  also  sent  a  division  along  the 
James  River  canal,  to  destroy  locks,  culverts,  etc.  All  mills  and  fac- 
tories along  the  line  of  march  of  his  troops  were  destroyed  also. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  265 

"  Sheridan  had  in  this  way  consumed  so  much  time  that  his  making 
a  march  to  White  House  was  now  somewhat  hazardous.  He  deter- 
mined, therefore,  to  fight  his  way  along  the  railroad  and  canal  till  he 
was  as  near  to  Richmond  as  it  was  possible  to  get,  or  until  attacked. 
On  the  loth  he  was  at  Columbia.  Negroes  had  joined  his  column  to- 
the  number  of  two  thousand  or  more,  and  they  assisted  considerably 
in  the  work  of  destroying  the  railroads  and  the  canal.  His  cavalry 
was  in  as  fine  a  condition  as  when  he  started,  because  he  had  been  able 
to  find  plenty  of  forage.  He  had  captured  most  of  Early's  horses,  and 
picked  up  a  good  many  others  on  the  road.  When  he  reached  Ash- 
land he  was  assailed  by  the  enemy  in  force.  He  resisted  their  assault 
with  part  of  his  command,  and  then  moved  quickly  across  the  South 
and  North  Anna,  going  north,  and  reached  White  House  safely  on 
the  i9th." 

General  Badeau  says:  "Sheridan's  loss  during  the  campaign  did 
not  exceed  one  hundred  soldiers,  and  many  of  these  were  the  men 
unable  to  bear  the  fatigues  of  the  march.  Incessant  rain,  deep  and 
impassable  streams,  swamps,  mud,  and*gloom,  were  the  impediments 
offered  by  nature  to  his  advance.  Seventeen  pieces  of  artillery,  and 
sixteen  hundred  prisoners  of  war  were  captured.  Forty-six  canal 
locks,  five  aqueducts,  forty  canal  and  road  bridges,  twenty-three  rail- 
road bridges,  one  foundry,  one  machine  shop,  twenty-seven  ware- 
houses, forty-one  miles  of  railroad,  fourteen  mills,  and  immense  quan- 
tities of  ammunition,  gray  cloth,  saddles,  horses,  grain,  and  other 
supplies  were  destroyed. 

u  Sheridan's  cavalry  had  annihilated  whatever  was  useful  to  the 
enemy  between  Richmond  and  Lynchburg,  and,  having  completed  it& 
work  in  the  Valley  of  the  Shenandoah,  he  was  once  more  ready  to  join 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  in  the  struggle  which  it  had  shared  the  year 
before.  Hancock  was  placed  in  command  of  the  Middle  Military 
Division,  while  Sheridan  resumed  his  old  command  close  to  Grant,  an 
arrangement  welcome  to  both  soldiers,  and  destined  to  prove  as  for- 
tunate for  the  reputation  of  the  chief  as  of  the  subordinate." 

It  was  this  raid  and  its  results  that  made  Grant  decide  on  the  final 
movements,  ending  in  the  capture  of  Richmond  and  the  surrender  of 
Lee  and  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia.  The  effect  of  Sheridan's 
arrival  and  cheery  presence  was  felt  at  City  Point  and  on  Grant  him- 
self. Movements  at  once  began. 

Between  the  i9th  of  March  (the  day  of  Sheridan's  arrival  at  the 
White  House  from  his  raid)  and  the  29th  thereof  (the  day  on  which 


266  THE  LIFE  OF 

President  Lincoln  bid  General  Grant  good-bye  at  City  Point,  as  the 
latter  with  his  staff  took  the  train  for  the  front) ,  there  had  been  a  good 
deal  of  fighting  about  Petersburg,  including  the  desperate  Confederate 
sortie  on  Fort  Steadman  and  its  vigorous  repulse.  This  occurred  on  the 
25th  of  March.  Sheridan  was  steadily  on  the  alert,  for  Grant  had  been 
in  constant  fear  for  a  month  before,  that  Lee  might  suddenly  pull  out 
from  his  intrenchments  and  fall  back  to  Lynchburg,  taking  advantage 
of  the  unbroken  railroad  line  into  North  Carolina,  where  General  Joe 
Johnston  was  operating  against  Sherman's  advance.  Such  a  movement 
might  have  proved  disastrous  to  Sherman  if  successfully  carried  out. 
Both  armies,  in  fact,  were  got  in  condition  u  for  a  fight  or  a  foot  race." 
Sheridan  and  his  cavalry  were  the  eye  and  arm  of  the  Union  army, 
and  his  thorough  comprehension  of  the  topographical  and  military 
situation,  gained  by  unceasing  vigilance,  soon  gave  a  fresh  impetus  to 
all  efforts. 

In  a  conversation  with  John  Russell  Young,  had  in  1880,  while  on 
the  Chinese  Sea,*  the  general  told  of  his  orders  to  Sheridan  for  the 
final  movement  that  began  at  Five  Forks  and  ended  at  Appomattox 
Court  House,  and  of  the  manner  in  which  Sheridan  received  his  orders. 
The  incident  is  so  characteristic  of  both  men,  as  narrated  by  the  senior 
of  them,  that  it  is  worthy  of  reproduction  here.  Grant  said  : 

"I  wras  only  waiting  for  Sheridan  to  finish  his  raid  around  Lee,  to 
make  final  movements.  When  Sheridan  arrived  from  that  raid,  I  asked 
him  to  take  a  walk.  As  we  were  walking,  I  took  out  his  orders  and 
gave  them  to  him.  They  were  orders  to  move  on  the  left  and  attack 
Lee.  If  the  movement  succeeded,  he  was  to  advance.  If  it  failed,  he 
was  to  make  his  way  into  North  Carolina  and  join  Sherman.  When 
Sheridan  read  this  part,  he  was,  I  saw,  disappointed.  His  countenance 
fell.  He  had  just  made  a  long  march,  a  severe  march,  and  the  idea  of 
another  march  into  North  Carolina  would  disconcert  any  commander, 
even  Sheridan.  He,  however,  said  nothing.  I  remarked  : 

u  '  Sheridan,  although  I  have  provided  for  your  retreat  into  North 
Carolina  in  the  event  of  a  failure,  I  have  no  idea  you  will  fail  —  no  idea 
that  you  will  go  to  Carolina.     I  mean  to  end  this  business  right  here.' 
"  Sheridan's  eyes  lit  up,  and  he  said  with  enthusiasm  : 
"  '  That's  the  talk.     Let  us  end  the  business  right  here.' 
"  But  of  course  I  had  to  think  of  the  loyal  North,  and  if  we  failed  in 
striking  Lee,  it  would  have  satisfied  the  North  for  Sheridan  to  go  to 

*  Around  the  World  with   General  Grant.    Vol.  II.,  page  357. 


GEN.  PHIL  «H.  SHERIDAN.  267 

the  Carol! nas.  The  movement,  however,  succeeded,  and  my  next  news 
from  Sheridan  was  the  battle  of  Five  Forks  —  one  of  the  finest  battles 
in  the  war." 

The  movements  indicated  began  at  once.  Grant  took  the  field, 
leaving  City  Point.  Badeau  says  : 

"  The  final  movement  against  Petersburg  had  no  success  for  several 
days.  A  great  many  advised  Grant  to  return  —  he  himself  was  gloomy. 
But  one  dark,  rainy  morning  Sheridan  came  riding  into  camp  and 
talked  so  cheeringly,  so  confidently,  and  so  .intelligently  of  what  he  could 
do,  that  his  mood  was  contagious." 

The  staff' took  the  great  trooper  in  to  Grant,  who  was  in  his  tent,  and 
when  Grant  perceived  Sheridan's  spirit,  he  felt  that  the  time  had  come. 
Of  this  interview  Grant  wrote  the  following :  * 

"  One  day,  after  the  movement  I  am  about  to  describe  had  com- 
menced [/.  <?.,  the  closing  campaign],  and  when  his  cavalry  was  on 
our  extreme  left  and  far  to  the  rear,  south,  Sheridan  rode  up  to  where 
my  headquarters  was  then  established  at  Dabney's  Mill.  He  met  some 
of  my  staff  officers  outside,  and  was  highly  jubilant  over  the  prospect 
of  success,  giving  reasons  why  he  believed  this  would  prove  the  final 
and  successful  effort.  Although  my  chief  of  staff'  had  urged  very  strongly 
that  we  return  to  our  position  about  City  Point  and  in  the  lines  around 
Petersburg,  he  asked  Sheridan  to  come  in  to  see  me  and  say  to  me  what 
lie  had  been  saying  to  them.  Sheridan  felt  a  little  modest  about  giv- 
ing his  advice  where  it  had  not  been  asked;  so  one  of  my  staff  came  in 
and  told  me  Sheridan  had  what  they  considered  important  news,  and 
suggested  that  I  send  for  him.  I  did  so,  and  was  glad  to  see  the  spirit 
of  confidence  with  which  he  was  inspired.  Knowing  as  I  did  from 
experience  of  what  great  value  that  feeling  of  confidence  by  a  com- 
mander was,  I  determined  to  make  a  movement  at  once." 

The  movement  was  made,  with  Sheridan  in  command.  The  battle 
of  Five  Forks  which  followed,  Grant  always  acknowledged,  "  made 
possible  the  final  assault  on  Petersburg,  and  opened  the  way  for  the 
Appomattox  campaign,  in  which  Sheridan  led  the  terrible  pursuit, 
fought  Saylor's  Creek,  and  out-marched  Lee.  In  all  these  movements 
he  sent  back  suggestions  daily,  almost  hourly,  to  Grant,  every  one  of 
which  Grant  accepted." 

Memoirs,  Vol.  II.,  p.  438. 


C/D 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


SHERIDAN'S  PURSUIT  OF  LEE. 

A  MASTERLY  MILITARY  ACHIEVEMENT  —  THE  BATTLE  OF  FIVE  FORKS  —  HOW 
GENERAL  LEE  WAS  OUT-MANGEUVERED  —  THE  BATTLE-FIELD  AS  A  STRATEGET- 
ICAL  POINT  —THE  CORPS  AND  SOLDIERS  ENGAGED — YOUNG  CHAMBERLAIN'S 

SPLENDID  FIGHT  —  FOR  "THE  HONOR  OF  THE  FIFTH  CORPS  "  — SHERI- 
DAN'S  GRAND  TACTICS  —  USING  HIS  CAVALRY  AS  A  SCREEN  —  A  BATTLE  OF 
GIANTS  —  SAVAGE  FIGHTING  ALL  DAY — SHERIDAN  SELDOM  OUT  OF  FIRE  — 
CUSTER'S  YELLOW  LOCKS  AT  THE  FRONT  — THE  "BARN  DOOR"  MOVEMENT 
AND  HOW  IT  WORKED  —  GALLOPING  DOWN  THE  LINES  —  MOUNTING 

THE     CONFEDERATE     BREASTWORKS  GENERAL     WINTHROP's     DEATH  — 

"STRAIGHTEN  THAT  LINE  "  —  VICTORY  —  CAPTURES  —  SURRENDER  —  THE 
SOLEMN  NIGHT  SCENE  AT  GRAVELLY  RUN. 

THE  battle  of  Five  Forks  was  perhaps  the  most  ingeniously  con- 
ceived and  most  skillfully  executed  engagement  that  was  ever  fought  on 
this  continent.  It  matched  in  secretiveness  and  shrewdness  the  clever- 
est efforts  of  Napoleon,  and  shows  also  much  of  that  soldier's  broadness 
of  intellect  and  capacity  for  great  occasions. 

Sheridan  had  scarcely  time  to  change  his  horse's  shoes  after  Lee 
started  south  from  Petersburg  before  he  was  off,  and  after  him  much  of 
Grant's  infantry  also  moved  to  the  left.  They  passed  the  ancient 
breastworks  at  Hatcher's  Run,  and  extended  their  lines  southwestward 
till  they  touched  Dinwiddie  Court  House,  thirty  miles  from  City  Point. 
The  Confederates  fell  back  with  but  little  skirmishing  until  the  Union 
force  faced  northward  and  reached  out  toward  their  idolized  South  Side 
railway.  Then  they  grew  uneasy,  and  as  a  hint  of  their  opposition, 
fought  the  sharp  battle  of  Quaker  road  on  Thursday.  Still  Grant 
reached  farther  and  farther,  marveling  to  find  that,  with  his  depleted 
army,  Lee  always  overmatched  him  at  every  point  of  attack ;  but  on 
Friday  the  Union  forces  quitted  the  intrenchments  on  the  Boydton 
plank  road,  and  made  a  bold  push  for  the  White  Oak  road.  This  is 
one  of  the  series  of  parallel  public  ways  running  east  and  west,  south 
of  the  Southside,  the  Vaughan  road  being  the  first,  the  Boydton 
plank  road  the  second,  and  the  old  Court  House  road  the  third.  It 
became  evident  to  the  Confederates  that  Grant  had  two  direct  objects 
in  view :  the  severing  of  their  most  important  railway,  and  the  occupa- 
tion of  the  "Five  Forks." 


270  THE  LIFE  OF 

The  latter  is  a  magnificent  strategic  point.  Five  good  roads  meet  in 
the  edge  of  a  dry,  high,  well-watered  fjprest,  three  of  them  radiating 
to  the  railway,  and  their  tributaries  unlocking  all  the  country.  Farther 
south  the  Confederate  defenses  had  been  paltry,  but  they  fortified  this 
empty  solitude  as  if  it  had  been  their  capital.  Upon  its  principal  road 
—  the  White  Oak  afore-named  —  they  had  a  ditched  breastworks  with 
embrasures  of  logs  and  earth,  reaching  east  and  west  three  miles.  This 
was  covered  eastward  and  southeastward  by  rifle-pits,  masked  works, 
and  felled  timber.  The  bridges  approaching  it  were  broken.  All  the 
roads  were  well  picketed,  and  a  desperate  resolve  to  hold  to  it  averred. 

This  point  of  Five  Forks  is  about  eight  miles  from  Dinwiddie 
Court  House,  four  from  the  Southside  road,  and  eighteen  from  Hum- 
phrey's, the  nearest  of  our  military  railway  stations.  A  crooked  stream r 
called  Gravelly  Run,  which,  with  Hatcher's,  forms  Rowanty  Creek  and 
goes  off  to  feed  the  Chowan  in  North  Carolina,  rises  near  Five  Forks, 
and  gives  the  name  of  Gravelly  Run  Church  to  a  little  Methodist 
meeting-house  built  in  the  forest  a  mile  distant.  That  meeting-house 
was  a  hospital,  running  blood,  while  a  victor's  battle-flags  were  flying 
at  Five  Forks. 

The  Fifth  Army  Corps  under  General  Warren  had  all  of  the  flank 
fighting  of  the  week  to  do.  It  lost  five  or  six  hundred  men  in  its  vic- 
tory of  Thursday,  and  on  Friday  rested  along  the  Boydton  plank  roadT 
at  the  house  of  one  Butler,  which  is  about  seven  miles  from  Five  Forks. 

On  Friday  morning,  April  ist,  General  Ayres  took  the  advance 
with  one  of  its  divisions,  and  marched  three-quarters  of  a  mile  be- 
yond the  plank  road,  through  a  woody  country,  following  the  road, 
but  crossing  the  ubiquitous  Gravelly  Run,  till  he  struck  the  enemy  in 
strong  force  a  mile  and  a  half  below  White  Oak  road.  They  lay  in 
the  edge  of  a  wood,  with  a  thick  curtain  of  timber  in  their  front,  a 
battery  of  field  pieces  to  the  right,  mounted  in  a  bastioned  earthwork, 
and  on  the  left  the  woods  drew  near,  encircling  a  little  farm-land  and 
some  negro  buildings. 

General  Ayres'  skirmish  line  being  fired  upon,  did  not  stand,  but 
fell  back  upon  his  main  column,  which  advanced  at  the  order.  Straight- 
way the  enemy  charged  headlong,  while  their  battery  opened  a  cross 
fire,  and  their  skirmishers  on  the  left,  creeping  down  through  the  woods, 
picked  the  Union  men  off  in  flank.  Then  they  charged  with  a  whole 
division,  giving  a  memorable  yell,  and  soon  doubled  up  Ayres'  line  of 
battle,  so  that  it  was  forced  in  tolerable  disorder  back  upon  General 
Crawford,  who  commanded  the  next  division. 

His  men  do  not  seem  to  have  retrieved  the  character  of  their  prede- 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  271 

cessors,  but  made  a  feint  to  go  in,  and  falling  by  dozens  beneath  the 
murderous  fire,  gave  up  the  ground.  Griffin's  division,  past  which  the 
fugitives  ran,  halted  awhile  before  taking  the  doubtful  way,  and  the 
whole  corps  was  now  back  to  the  Boydton  plank  road,  and  nothing 
had  been  done  to  anybody's  credit. 

General  Griffin  rode  up  to  General  Chamberlain  in  this  extremity. 
Chamberlain  was  a  young  and  anxious  officer,  who  resigned  the  pro- 
fessorship of  modern  languages  in  Bowdoin  College  to  embrace  a  sol- 
dier's career.  He  had  been  wounded  the  day  before,  but  was  zealous 
to  try  death  again. 

"  Chamberlain,"  said  Griffin,  "  can't  you  save  the  honor  of  the 
Fifth  Corps?" 

The  young  general  formed  his  'men  at  once, — the  One  Hundred 
and  Eighty-fifth  New  York  and  the  One  Hundred  and  Ninety-eighth 
Pennsylvania :  they  had  tasted  powder  before.  Down  they  went  into 
the  creek,  waist  deep,  up  the  slope,  and  into  the  clearing, —  muskets  to 
the  left  of  them,  muskets  in  front  of  them,  cannon  to  the  right  of  them. 
But  their  pace  was  swift,  like  their  resolve.  Many  of  them  were  cut 
down,  yet  they  kept  ahead,  and  the  Confederates,  who  seemed  aston- 
ished at  their  own  success,  drew  off  and  gave  up  the  field. 

Almost  two  hours  had  elapsed  between  the  loss  and  the  recovery  of 
the  ground.  The  battle  might  be  called  Daney's  Farm,  or,  more  gen- 
erally, the  fight  of  Gravelly  Run.  The  brigades  of  Generals  Bartlett 
and  Gregory  rendered  material  assistance  in  the  pleasanter  finale  of 
the  day. 

An  order  was  soon  issued  to  hasten  the  burial  of  the  dead  and  quit 
the  spot,  but  Chamberlain  petitioned  for  leave  to  charge  the  enemy's 
earthwork  in  the  rear,  and  the  enthusiasm  of  his  brigade  bore  down 
General  Warren's  more  prudent  doubt.  In  brief,  Griffin's  division 
charged  the  fort,  drove  the  Confederates  out  of  it,  and  took  position  on 
the  White  Oak  road,  far  east  of  Five  Forks. 

While  Griffin's  division  must  be  credited  with  this  result,  it  may  be 
said  that  their  luck  was  due  as  much  to  the  time  as  the  manner  of 
their  appearance.  The  Confederate  divisions  of  Pickett  and  Bushrod 
Johnson  were,  in  the  main,  by  the  time  Griffin  came  up,  on  their  way 
eastward  to  attack  Sheridan's  cavalry.  Ayres  and  Crawford  had 
charged  as  one  to  four,  but  the  forces  were  quite  equalized  when 
Chamberlain  pushed  on.  The  corps  probably  lost  twelve  hundred  men. 

In  this  action  the  Confederates,  for  the  first  time  for  many  weeks, 
exhibited  all  their  traditional  irresistibility  and  confidence  ;  but  a  ter- 
rible retribution  remained  for  them  in  the  succeeding  day's  decrees. 


272  THE  LIFE  OF 

Concentrating  at  Dinwiddie  Court  House,  Sheridan  proceeded  to 
scour  so  much  of  the  country  that  h£,  Almost  baffled  conjecture  as  to 
where  his  headquarters  really  were,  as  many  thousand  cavalry  as 
constituted  his  powerful  force  seem  magnified  to  an  incredible  number 
when  mounted^and  ever  moving  here  and  there. 

The  Court  House,  where  he  remained  fittingly  for  a  couple  of  days, 
is  a  cross-roads  patch,  numbering  about  twelve  scattered  buildings, 
with  a  delightful  prospect  on  every  side  of  sterile  and  monotonous 
pines.  This  is  the  largest  village  in  the  district,  though  Dinwiddie 
stands  fourth  in  population  among  Virginia  counties.  At  the  time, 
there  was  almost  as  great  a  population  underground  as  the  ancient 
county  carried  on  its  census. 

From  Dinwiddie  fields  Sheridan's  men  went  galloping,  by  the  aid 
of  maps  and  cross-examination,  into  every  by-road  ;  but  it  was  soon 
apparent  that  the  Confederate  infantry  meant  to  give  them  a  push. 
This  came  about  on  Friday,  with  a  foretaste  on  Thursday. 

Little  Five  Forks  is  a  cross-road  not  far  from  Dinwiddie  Court 
House,  in  the  direction  of  Petersburg.  Big  Five  Forks,  which,  it  must 
be  borne  in  mind,  gives  name  to  the  great  battle  of  Saturday,  is  farther 
out  by  several  miles,  and  did  not  lie  within  our  lines.  But,  if  the  left 
of  the  army  be  at  Dinwiddie,  and  the  right  at  Petersburg,  Little  Five 
Forks  will  be  on  the  front  line,  though  when  Sheridan  fought  there,  it 
was  neutral  ground,  picketed,  but  not  possessed. 

Very  early  in  the  Week,  when  the  Confederates  became  aware  of 
the  extension  of  our  lines,  they  added  at  least  a  division  of  troops  to 
the  regular  force  which  encamped  upon  our  flank  line.  These  were 
directed  to  avoid  an  infantry  fight,  but  to  seek  out  the  cavalry,  and,  by 
getting  it  at  disadvantage,  rid  the  region  both  of  the  harmfulness  of 
Sheridan,  and  that  prestige  of  his  name  so  terrifying  to  the  Virginia 
housewife.  So  long  as  Sheridan  remained  upon  the  far  left,  the  South 
Side  road  was  unsafe,  and  the  rapidity  with  which  his  command  could 
be  transferred  from  point  to  point  rendered  it  a  formidable  balance  of 
power.  The  Confederates  knew  the  country  well,  and  the  peculiar 
course  of  the  highways  gave  them  every  advantage. 

The  cavalry  of  Sheridan's  army  proper  was  divided  into  two  divis- 
ions commanded  by  Generals  Deven  and  Custer,  General  Merritt 
commanding ;  the  cavalry  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  handled 
by  General  Crook  ;  McKenzie  led  the  cavalry  of  the  James.  On  Fri- 
day these  were  under  separate  orders,  and  the  result  was  confusion. 
The  infantry  was  beaten  at  Gravelly  Run,  and  the  cavalry,  met  in  flank 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  27? 

and  front  by  overwhelming  numbers,  executed  some  movements  not 
laid  down  in  the  manual.  The  centre  of  the  battle  was  Little  Five 
Forks,  though  the  Confederates  struck  Sheridan  closer  to  Dinwiddie 
Court  House,  and  drove  his  forces  pell-mell  up  the  road  into  the  woods, 
and  out  the  old  Court  House  road  to  Gravelly  Run.  The  Union  men 
rallied  several  times,  and  charged  them  into  the  woods,  but  they,  con- 
cealed in  copses,  could  go  where  sabres  were  useless. 

The  plan  of  this  battle-field  will  show  a  series  of  irregular  advances 
to  puzzle  anybody  but  a  cavalryman.  The  full  divisions  of  Bushrod 
Johnson  and  General  Pickett  were  developed  against  the  Federal 
troops,  with  spare  brigades  from  other  corps.  The  Union  cavalry  loss 
during  the  day  was  800  in  killed  and  wounded  ;  but  the  Confederates 
were  pushed  so  hard  that  they  gave  up  the  field,  falling  back  toward 
Big  Five  Forks.  Two  thousand  men  comprise  the  Union  losses  of 
Friday  in  Warren's  corps  and  Sheridan's  command,  including  many 
valuable  officers.  Under  a  single  guidance,  splendid  results  were  next 
day  obtained  with  half  the  sacrifice. 

On  Friday  night  General  Grant,  dissatisfied,  like  most  observers, 
with  the  day's  business,  placed  General  Sheridan  in  the  supreme  com- 
mand of  the  whole  of  Warren's  corps  and  all  the  cavalry.  General 
Warren  reported  to  him  at  nightfall,  and  the  little  army  was  thus  com- 
posed : 

GENERAL  SHERIDAN'S  FORCES,  SATURDAY,  APRIL  i,   1865. 

Three  divisions  of  infantry,  under  Generals  Griffin,  Ayres,  and 
Crawford. 

Two  divisions  of  cavalry,  formerly  constituting  the  Army  of  the 
Shenandoah,  now  commanded  by  General  Merritt,  under  Generals 
Deven  and  Custer. 

One  division  cavalry  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  under  General 
Crook. 

Brigade  or  more  cavalry,  Army  of  the  James,  under  General  Mc- 
Kenzie. 

In  this  composition  the  infantry  was  to  the  cavalry  in  the  propor- 
tion of  about  two  to  one,  and  the  entire  force  a  considerable  army. 
Sheridan  was  absolute.  He  visited  every  part  of  his  line,  though  it 
stretched  from  Dinwiddie  Court  House  to  the  Quaker  road,  along  the 
Boydton  plank  and  its  adjuncts. 

At  daybreak  on  Saturday  he  fired  four  signal  guns,  to  admonish 
18 


274  THE  LIFE  OF 

Warren  that  he  was  off;  and  his  cavalry,  by  diverging  roads,  struck 
their  camps.  Just  south  is  a  certain  Stony  Creek,  the  tributaries  to 
which  wind  northward  and  control  {Vie  roads.  Over  Stony  Creek 
went  Crook,  making  the  longest  detour.  Custer  took  the  bottom  of 
Chamberlain's  bed,  and  Deven  advanced  from  Little  Five  Forks,  the 
whole  driving  the  Confederates  toward  the  left  of  their  works  on  White 
Oak  road. 

The  Union  men  outnumbered  their  opponents.  The  latter  were 
widely  separated  from  their  comrades  before  Petersburg,  and  the  adjust- 
ment of  our  infantry,  as  well  as  the  great  movable  force  at  Sheridan's 
disposal,  rendered  it  doubtful  that  they  could  have  returned.  At  any 
rate  they  did  not  do  so,  whether  from  choice  or  necessity,  and  it  was 
a  part  of  Sheridan's  scheme  to  push  them  back  into  their  intrench- 
ments.  This  work  was  delegated  to  the  cavalry  entirely,  but  when 
the  horsemen  were  close  up  to  the  Confederates,  they  were  dismounted, 
and  to  all  intents  used  as  infantry. 

A  portion  of  them,  under  Gregg  and  McKenzie,  still  adhered  to  the 
saddle,  that  they  might  be  put  in  rapid  motion  for  flanking  and  charg- 
ing purposes  ;  but  fully  five  thousand  dismounted  men,  who  had  seen 
service  in  the  Shenandoah  and  elsewhere,  were  formed  in  line  of  battle 
on  foot,  and  by  charge  and  deploy  essayed  the  difficult  work  of  press- 
ing back  the  entire  Confederate  column. 

This  they  were  to  do  so  evenly  and  ingeniously  that  the  Confeder- 
ates should  go  no  farther  than  their  works,  either  to  escape  eastward, 
or  to  discover  the  whereabouts  of  Warren's  forces,  which  were  already 
forming.  Had  they  espied  the  latter  they  might  have  become  so  dis- 
couraged as  to  break  and  take  to  the  woods  ;  and  Sheridan's  object  was 
to  capture  them  as  well  as  to  rout  them. 

All  the  afternoon  the  cavalry  pushed  them  hard,  and  the  strife  went 
on  uninterruptedly  and  terrifically.  The  battle  was  fought  at  so  close 
quarters  that  the  Union  carbines  were  never  oat  of  range  ;  had  this 
been  otherwise,  the  long  rifles  of  the  enemy  would  have  given  them 
every  advantage. 

With  their  horses  within  call,  the  cavalrymen,  in  line  of  battle, 
stood  together  like  walls  of  stone,  swelling  onward  like  those  gradual 
elevating  ridges  of  which  Lyell  speaks.  Now  and  then  a  detachment 
of  Confederates  would  charge  down,  swaying  the  Union  lines  and 
threatening  to  annihilate  them,  for  at  no  part  of  the  action,  till  its 
crisis,  did  the  Southern  men  exhibit  either  doubt  or  dismay,  but  fought 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  27$ 

up  to  the  standard,  here  and  there  showing  some  of  those  wonderful 
feats  of  individual  courage  which  were  the  miracles  of  the  time. 

A  colonel  with  a  shattered  regiment  came  down  on  a  desperate 
charge.  The  bayonets  were  fixed  ;  the  men  advanced  with  a  yell ; 
their  gray  uniforms  seemed  black  amidst  the  smoke  ;  their  preserved 
colors,  torn  by  grape  and  ball,  waved  yet  defiantly  ;  twice  they  halted 
and  poured  in  volleys,  but  came  on  again  like  the  surge  from  the  fog, 
depleted,  but  determined.  Yet  in  the  hot  faces  of  the  carbineers  they 
read  a  purpose  as  resolute  but  more  calm,  and  while  they  pressed 
along,  swept  all  the  while  by  scathing  volleys,  a  group  of  horsemen 
took  them  in  flank.  It  was  an  awful  instant ;  the  horses  recoiled,  the 
charging  column  trembled,  but  at  once  the  Confederates,  with  rare  or- 
ganization, fell  into  a  hollow  square,  and  with  solid  sheets  of  steel 
defied  our  centaurs.  The  horsemen  rode  around  them  in  vain  ;  no 
charge  could  break  the  shining  squares  until  our  dismounted  carbi- 
neers poured  in  their  volleys  fresh,  making  gaps  in  the  spent  ranks,  and 
then  in  their  wavering  time  the  cavalry  thundered  down.  The  Confed- 
erates could  stand  no  more  ;  they  reeled  and  swayed,  and  tell  back, 
broken  and  beaten.  And  on  the  ground  their  colonel  lay,  sealing  his 
devotion  with  his  life. 

Through  wood  and  brake  and  swamp,  across  field  and  trench,  the 
fighting  defenders  were  steadily  pushed.  For  a  part  of  the  time 
Sheridan  himself  was  there,  short,  and  broad,  and  active,  waving  his  hat, 
giving  orders,  seldom  out  .of  fire,  but  never  stationary,  and  close  by  fell 
the  long,  yellow  locks  of  Custer,  sabre  extended,  fighting  like  a  viking, 
though  he  was  worn  and  haggard  with  much  work.  At  4  o'clock  the 
enemy  were  behind  their  wooden  walls  at  Five  Forks,  and  still  the  cav- 
alry pressed  them  hard,  in  feint  rather  than  solemn  effort,  while  a 
battalron,  dismounted,  charged  squarely  upon  the  face  of  their  breast- 
works, which  lay  in  the  main  on  the  north  side  of  the  White  Oak  road. 
Then,  while  the  cavalry  worked  round  toward  the  rear,  the  infantry  of 
Warren,  though  commanded  by  Sheridan,  prepared  to  take  part  in  the 
battle. 

The  genius  of  Sheridan's  movement  lay  in  his  disposition  of  the 
infantry.  The  skill  with  which  he  arranged  it,  and  the  difficult 
manoeuvres  he  projected  and  so  well  executed,  should  place  him  as  high 
in  infantry  tactics  as  he  has  many  times  shown  himself  superior  in  cav- 
alry. The  infantry,  which  had  marched  at  2.30  p.  M.  from  the  house  of 
Boisseau,  on  the  Boydton  plank  road,  was  drawn  up  in  four  battle 
lines  a  mile  or  more  in  length,  and  in  the  beginning  facing  the  White 


276  THE  LIFE  OF 

Oak  road  obliquely;  the  left  or  pivot  was  the  division  of  General 
Ayres ;  Crawford  had  the  centre,  and  Griffin  the  right.  These  ad- 
vanced from  the  Boydton  plank  road"  at  10  o'clock,  while  Sheridan  was 
thundering  away  with  the  cavalry,  mounted  and  dismounted,  and  delud- 
ing his  enemy  with  the  idea  that  he  was  the  sole  attacking  party.  They 
lay  concealed  in  the  woods  behind  Gravelly  Run  Meeting-house,  but 
their  left  was  not  a  half  mile  distant  from  the  Confederate  works,  though 
their  right  reached  so  far  off  that  a  novice  would  have  criticised  the 
position  sharply.  Little  by  little,  Sheridan  extended  his  lines,  drove 
the  whole  defending  force  into  their  breastworks ;  then  he  dismounted 
the  mass  of  his  cavalry  and  charged  the  works  straight  in  the  front,  still 
thundering  on  their  flank.  At  last,  every  Confederate  was  safe  behind 
his  intrenchments.  Then  the  signal  was  given,  and  the  concealed 
infantry,  many  thousand  strong,  sprang  up  and  advanced  by  echelon  to 
the  right.  Imagine,  as  Sheridan  himself  described  it,  a  great  barn 
door  shutting  to,  and  you  have  the  movement,  if  you  can  also  imagine 
the  door  itself,  hinge  and  all,  moving  forward  also.  This  was  the 
door  : 

AYRES.         CRAWFORD.         GRIFFIN. 

Stick  a  pin  through  Ayres  and  turn  Griffin  and  Crawford  forward 
as  you  would  a  spoke  in  a  wheel,  but  move  your  pin  up  also  a  very  little. 
In  this  way  Ayres  will  advance,  say  half  a  mile,  and  Griffin,  to  describe 
a  quarter  revolution,  will  move  through  a  radius  of  four  miles.  But 
to  complicate  this  movement  by  echelon,  we  must  imagine  the  right, 
when  halfway  advanced,  cutting  across  the  centre  and  re-forming,  while 
Crawford  became  the  right  and  Griffin  the  middle  of  the  line  of  battle. 
Warren  was  with  Crawford  on  this  march.  Gregory  commanded  the 
skirmishers.  Ayers  was  so  close  to  the  Confederate  left  that  he  might 
be  said  to  hinge  upon  it ;  and  at  S  o'clock  the  whole  corps  column 
came  crash  upon  the  full  flank  of  the  astonished  rebels.  Now  came  the 
pitch  of  the  battle. 

Sheridan  was  already  on  the  Confederate  right  in  force,  and  thinly 
in  their  rear.  His  carbineers  were  making  feint  to  charge  in  direct 
front,  and  the  Union  infantry,  four  deep,  hemmed  in  their  entire  left. 
All  this  they  did  not  for  an  instant  note  :  and  so  far  from  giving  up, 
concentrated  all  their  energy  and  fought  like  fiends.  They  had  a  bat- 
tery in  position  which  belched  incessantly,  and  over  the  breastworks 
their  musketry  made  one  unbroken  roll ;  while  against  Sheridan's 
prowlers  on  their  left,  by  skirmish  and  sortie,  they  stuck  to  their  sink- 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 


277 


ing  fortunes  so  as 
to  win  unwilling  ap- 
plause from  mouths 
of  wisest  censure. 

It  was  just  at  the 
coming  up  of  the 
infantry  that  Sheri- 
dan's little  band  was 
pushed  the  hardest. 
At  one  time,  indeed, 
they  seemed  about  to 
undergo  extermina- 
tion ;  —  not  that  they 
wavered,  but  that 
they  were  so  vastly 
overpowered.  It 
will  remain  to  the 
latest  time  a  matter 
of  marvel  how  so 
paltry  a  cavalry  force 
could  press  back 
16,000  infantry  ;  but 
when  the  infantry 
blew  like  a  great 
barn  door  —  the 
simile  best  appli- 
cable —  upon  the  enemy's  left,  the  victory  that  was  to  come  had 
passed  the  region  of  strategy  and  resolved  to  an  affair  of  personal  cour- 
age. Every  officer  fought  as  if  he  were  the  forlorn  hope.  Mounted 
on  his  black  horse  — the  same  which  he  rode  at  Winchester —  Sheridan 
galloped  everywhere,  his  flushed  face  all  the  redder,  and  his  small, 
nervous  figure  all  the  more  ubiquitous.  He  galloped  once  straight 
down  the  Confederate  front  with  but  a  handful  of  his  staff.  A  dozen 
bullets  whistled  for  him  together  ;  one  grazed  his  arm,  at  which  a  faith- 
ful orderly  rode  ;  the  black  charger  leaped  high,  in  fright,  and  Sheridan 
was  untouched  —  but  the  orderly  lay  dead  in  the  field,  and  the  saddle 
dashed  afar,  empty.  General  Warren  rode  with  Crawford  most  of  the 
afternoon,  mounted  likewise,  and  having  two  or  three  narrow  escapes. 
He  was  as  dark,  dashing,  and  individual  as  ever,  but  was  relieved  of 
his  command  after  the  battle,  and  Griffin  succeeded  to  his  place. 


GEN.  GEORGE  D.  BAYARD, 

ONE  OF  THE  YOUNGEST  GENERALS  IN  THE  ARMY,  KILLED  AT 
FREDERICKSBURG,  DECEMBER  13,  1862. 


278  THE  LIFE  OF 

Ayers  fought  like  a  lion  in  this  pitch  of  battle,  making  all  the  faint- 
hearted around  him  ashamed  to  do.^ll-with  such  an  example  contig- 
uous. General  Bartlett,  keen-faced  and  active,  like  a  fiery  scimeter, 
was  leading  his  division  as  if  he  were  an  immortal.  He  was  close  at 
hand  in  the  most  gallant  episodes,  and  held  at  nightfall  a  bundle  of 
captured  battle-flags.  But  Griffin,  tall  and  slight,  led  the  charge  on 
the  flank,  and  was  the  first  to  mount  the  parapet  with  his  horse,  riding 
over  the  gunners  as  May  did  at  Cerro  Gordo,  and  cutting  them  down. 
Bartlett's  brigade,  behind  him,  finished  the  business,  and  the  last  can- 
non was  fired  for  the  day  against  the  conquering  Federals.  General 
Crawford  fulfilled  his  full  share  of  duties  throughout  the  day,  amply 
sustained  by  such  splendid  brigade  commanders  as  Baxter,  Coulter, 
and  Kellogg,  while  Gwin  and  Boweryman  were  at  hand  in  the  division 
of  General  Ayres  —  not  to  omit  the  fallen  Winthrop,  who  died  to  save 
a  friend  and  win  a  new  laurel.  Chamberlain,  having  been  the  hero  of 
both  Quaker  road  and  Gravelly  Run,  in  the  action  of  Five  Forks 
made  the  air  ring  with  the  applauding  huzzas  of  his  soldiers. 

The  fight,  as  Sheridan  closed  upon  the  Confederates,  was  singularly 
free  from  great  losses  on  our  side,  though  desperate  as  any  contest  ever 
fought  on  the  continent.  One  prolonged  roar  of  rifles  shook  the  after- 
noon ;  and  the  Confederate  artillery,  until  its  capture,  raked  the  Union 
men  like  an  irrepressible  demon,  and  at  every  foot  of  the  intrenchments 
a  true  man  fought  both  in  front  and  behind.  The  birds  of  the  forest 
fled  afar  ;  the  smoke  ascended  to  heaven  ;  locked  in  so  mad  frenzy,  none 
saw  the  sequel  of  the  closing  day.  Now  Richmond  rocked  in  her 
high  towers  to  watch  the  impending  issue.  But  soon  the  clay  began  to 
look  gray,  and  a  pale  moon  came  tremulously  out  to  watch  the  meeting 
squadrons.  Imagine  along  a  line  of  a  full  mile,  30,000  men  strug- 
gling for  life  and  prestige,  the  woods  gathering  about  them  —  but 
yesterday  the  home  of  hermit  hawks  and  chipmunks  —  now  ablaze 
with  bursting  shells,  and  showing  in  the  dusk  the  curl  of  flames  in  the 
tangled  grass,  and  rising^  up  the  boles  of  the  pine  trees,  the  scaling, 
scorching  tongues.  Seven  hours  this  terrible  spectacle  had  been  en- 
acted, but  \.\\ejinale  of  it  had  almost  come. 

It  was,  by  all  accounts,  in  this  hour  of  victory  when  the  modest  and 
"brave  General  Winthrop,  of  the  First  Brigade,  Ayers'  division,  was 
mortally  wounded.  He  was  riding  along  the  breastworks,  and  while 
in  the  act  of  saving  .a  friend's  life,  was  shot  through  the  left  lung.  He 
fell  at  once,  and  his  men,  who  loved  him,  gathered  around  and  took 
him  tenderly  to  the  rear,  where  he  died  before  the  stretcher  on  which 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN.  279 

he  lay  could  be  deposited  beside  the  meeting-house  door.  On  the  way 
from  the  field  to  the  hospital  he  wandered  in  mind  at  times,  crying 
out : 

"  Captain  Weaver,  how  is  that  line  ?  Has  the  attack  succeeded  ? "  etc. 

When  he  had  been  resuscitated  for  a  pause,  he  said  : 

"Doctor,  I  am  done  for."     His  last  words  were : 

"  Straighten  the  line  !"  and  he  died  peacefully. 

He  was  a  cousin  of  Major  Winthrop,  the  author  of  Cecil  Dreeme, 
and  was  twenty-seven  years  of  age. 

General  Griffin  said  :   "  This  victory  is  not  worth  Winthrop's  life." 

Winthrop  went  into  the  service  as  a  simple  color-bearer.  He  died 
a  brevet-brigadier. 

It  was  7  o'clock  before  the  Confederates  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  they  were  outflanked  and  whipped.  They  had  been  so  busily 
engaged  that  they  were  a  long  time  finding  out  how  desperate  were 
their  circumstances  ;  but  now,  wearied  with  persistent  assaults  in  front, 
they  fell  back  to  the  left,  only  to  see  four  lines  of  battle  waiting  to 
drive  them  across  the  field,  decimated.  At  the  right,  the  horsemen 
charged  them  in  their  vain  attempt  to  fight  "  out,"  and  in  the  rear, 
straggling  foot  and  cavalry  began  also  to  assemble  ;  slant  fire,  cross  fire, 
and  direct  fire,  by  file  and  volley,  rolled  in  perpetually,  cutting  down 
their  bravest  officers,  and  strewing  the  fields  with  bleeding  men  ;  groans 
resounded  in  the  intervals  of  exploding  powder,  and  to  add  to  their 
terror  and  despair,  their  own  artillery,  captured  from  them,  threw  into 
their  own  ranks  from  its  old  position,  ungrateful  grape  arid  canister, 
enfilading  their  breastworks,  whizzing  and  plunging  by  air  line  and 
ricochet ;  and  at  last  bodies  of  cavalry  fairly  mounted  their  intrench- 
ments  and  charged  clown  the  parapet,  slashing  and  trampling  them,  and 
producing  inexplicable  confusion.  They  had  no  commanders  —  at 
least  no  orders  —  and  looked  in  vain  for  some  guiding  hand  to  lead 
them  out  of  a  toil  into  which  they  had  fallen  so  bravely  and  so  blindly. 
A  few  more  volleys, —  a  new  and  irresistible  charge, —  a  shrill  and 
warning  command  to  die  or  surrender,  and  with  a  sullen  and  tearful 
impulse,  five  thousand  muskets  were  flung  upon  the  ground,  and  five 
thousand  exhausted  and  impotent  men  were  Sheridan's  prisoners  of 
war. 

Acting  with  his  usual  decision,  Sheridan  placed  his  captives  in  care 
of  a  provost-guard,  and  sent  them  at  once  to  the  rear.  Those  which 
escaped  he  ordered  the  fiery  Custer  to  pursue  with  brand  and  vengeance, 
and  they  were  pressed  far  into  the  desolate  forest,  spent  and  hungry, 


28o  GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

many  falling  by  the  way  of  wounds  or  exhaustion,  many  pressed  down 
by  hoof  or  sabre-stroke,  and  many^  ^picked  up  in  mercy  and  sent 
back  to  rejoin  their  brethren  in  bonds'. 

Thus  ended  the  splendid  victory  of  Five  Forks,  the  least  bloody  to 
the  Union  troops,  but  the  most  successful,  proportionate  to  numbers 
engaged,  that  was  fought  during  the  war.  One  man  out  of  every  three 
engaged  took  a  prisoner.  Sheridan  captured  four  cannon,  an  ambu- 
lance train  and  baggage  teams,  eight  thousand  muskets,  and  twenty- 
eight  battle-flags.  Sheridan's  loss  only  reached  eight  hundred. 

This  victory  was  almost  entirely  due  to  Sheridan.  It  was  won  by 
his  strategy  and  persistence.  The  happy  distribution  of  duties  between 
cavalry  and  infantry  excited  a  fine  rivalry,  and  the  consciousness  of 
Sheridan's  guidance  inspired  confidence.  The  enemy  lost  three  thou- 
sand in  killed  and  wounded. 

The  scene  at  Gravelly  Run  Meeting-house  at  8  and  at  10  o'clock  on 
Saturday  night  was  one  of  the  solemn  contrasts  of  the  war.  A  little 
frame  church,  planted  among  the  pines,  and  painted  white,  with  cool, 
green  window-shutters,  held  at  its  foot  a  gallery  for  the  negroes,  and 
at  the  head  a  varnished  pulpit.  Blood  ran  in  little  rills  across  the 
planks,  and  human  feet  treading  in  them,  made  indelible  prints  in  every 
direction.  The  pulpit  lamps  were  doing  duty,  not  to  shed  holy  light 
upon  holy  pages,  but  to  show  the  pale  and  dusty  faces  of  the  beseech- 
ing ;  and  as  they  moved  in  and  out,  the  groans  and  curses  of  the  suffering 
replaced  the  gush  of  peaceful  hymns  and  the  deep  responses  to  the 
preacher's  prayers.  Federal  and  Confederate  lay  together,  the  bitter- 
ness of  noon  assuaged  in  the  common  tribulation  of  the  night,  and  all 
the  while  came  in  the  dripping  stretchers,  to  place  in  this  Golgotha 
new  recruits  for  death  and  sorrow.  Over  the  portal,  the  scenes  within 
were  reiterated,  except  that  the  greatness  of  a  starry  night  replaced  the 
close  and  terrible  arena  of  the  church.  Beneath  the  trees,  where  the 
Methodist  circuit-ri'der  had  tied  his  horse,  and  the  urchins,  during  class- 
meeting,  had  wandered  away  to  cast  stones  at  the  squirrels,  and  measure 
strength  at  vaulting  and  running,  the  gashed  and  fevered  lay  irregularly, 
some  soul  going  out  at  each  whifF  of  the  breeze  in  the  fir-tops  ;  and  the 
teams  and  surgeons,  and  straggling  soldiers,  and  galloping  orderlies, 
passed  all  the  night  beneath  the  old  and  gibbous  moon  and  the  hushed 
stars,  and  by  trickle  of  Gravelly  Run,  stealing  oft",  afeared.  But  the 
wounded  had  no  thought  that  night ;  the  victory  absorbed  all  hearts. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 


SHERIDAN  AT  THE  SURRENDER. 

THE  FIVE  FORKS  ENVIRONMENT  —  STRIKING  AT  APPOMATTOX  —  FIGHTING 
BEFORE  DAYBREAK — STANDING  TO  HORSE  ALL  NIGHT  —  RAPID  CAVALRY 
MOVEMENTS  —  OVERRIDING  MEADE  —  SURROUNDING  LEE  —  SHERIDAN'S 
DISTRUST  —  THE  TRUCE  —  GORDON  AND  THE  SHARPSHOOTER  —  GRANT  AND 
SHERIDAN  MEET  —  THE  SURRENDER  OF  LEE  —  "  CARRYING  THE  WORLD"  ON 
THEIR  SHOULDERS. 

THE  night  of  March  29,  1865,  found  Sheridan  with  his  cavalry, 
pressing,  watching,  keenly  alert,  looking  into  the  night  and  southward, 
as  he  held,  at  Dinwiddie  Court  House,  the  extreme  left  of  our  investing 
lines  about  Richmond  and  Petersburg.  The  end  was  near,  and  by 
the  way  at  the  flank  of  which  Sheridan  watched  like  an  eagle  ready 
to  pounce  upon  its  prey,  must  Lee  get  clear,  if  at  all,  of  the  fiercely 
elaborate  environment  which  for  ten  months  past  Grant  had  so  sternly 
and  steadily  forged  about  him.  In  a  semicircle  or  arc  of  at  least 
thirty-five  miles,  the  army  of  investment  was  swinging  steadily  for- 
ward. Weitzel  on  the  far  right  with  a  part  of  the  Army  of  the  James, 
was  near  to  Richmond.  Warren  was  below  and  behind  Sheridan, 
holding  the  extreme  left  with  his  stern,  unflinching  veterans.  Between 
them,  and  next  to  Warren  was  Humphrey,  then  Ord  and  the  balance 
of  the  Army  of  the  James,  and  Wright  with  the  Sixth  Corps,  holding 
our  works  in  front  of  Petersburg.  Grant's  headquarters  were  that 
night  in  the  centre,  south  of  the  Vaugh^n  road  and  close  to  Gravelly 
Run. 

To  understand  clearly  the  wonderful  part  that  Sheridan  played  in 
the  next  few  days,  the  position  of  Lee  must  be  fully  comprehended. 
Richmond  was  half  starved.  Petersburg  was  a  demoralized  camp. 
Many  of  the  soldiers  of  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  were  negatively 
hostile  to  a  continuance  of  the  struggle  for  the  Confederate  cause  and 
its  government.  General  Lee  they  worshiped  and  they  would  follow 
him.  The  corps  and  divisions  were  held  by  their  leaders  and  the  men's 
admiration  in  them.  This  indifference  or  semi-hostility  was  never 


282 


THE  LIFE  OF 


openly  expressed.  But  it  was  felt,  nevertheless.  There  was  only  one 
way  out  for  Lee  :  a  retreat  to  the  southwest,  by  the  line  of  the  Rich- 
mond and  Danville  railroad.  Looking  at  the  conditions  then  existing, 
it  may  well  be  doubted  if  Lee  had  any  real  expectation  of  escaping 
from  Grant  with  his  half-fed  and  semi-naked  troops.  If  so,  it  could 
have  been  only  to  commence  a  desultory,  semi-detached  warfare  which 
must  have  very  speedily  degenerated  into  a  partisan,  guerrilla  struggle, 
sure  to  have  made  far  more  difficult,  with  each  recurring  day's  action, 
any  liberal  settlement  of  the  terrible  dispute  which  had  put,  first  and 
last,  over  three  million  men  under  arms. 

It  may  be  well  to  indicate  the  troops  with  which  this  great  task  in 
its  final  phases,  was  to  be  accomplished.  With  Sheridan,  fighting  the 
battle  of  Five  Forks,  and  serving,  too,  as  the  fighting  advanced,  in  all 
subsequent  operations,  the  roster  of  March  3ist  shows  the  following 
commands,  as  engaged  in  the  final  movements.  In  the  field  and  at 
Five  Forks  were  the 

FIFTH   ARMY   CORPS. 
MAJOR-GENERAL  GOUVERNEUR   K.  WARREN. 

FIRST   DIVISION. 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL  CHARLES  GRIFFIN. 

First  Brigade. — Brigadier-General  Joshua  L.  Chamberlain. 

Second  Brigade. —  Colonel  Edgar  M.  Gregory. 

Third  Brigade. —  Brigadier-General  Joseph  J.  Bartlett. 

SECOND  DIVISION. 
BRIGADIER-GENERAL  ROMLYN  B.  AYERS. 

First  Brigade. —  Colonel  Frederick  Winthrop. 
Second  Brigade. —  Colonel  Andrew  W.  Denneson. 
Third  Brigade. —  Colonel  James  Gwyn. 

THIRD  DIVISION. 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL  SAMUEL  W.  CRAWFORD. 

First  Brigade. —  Colonel  John  A.  Kellogg. 
Second  Brigade. —  Brigadier-General  Henry  Baxter. 
Third  Brigade. —  Colonel  Richard  Coulter. 
Artillery  Brigade. —  Colonel  Charles  S.  Wainwright. 

The  cavalry,  Sheridan's  own  command,  consisted  of  four  divisions, 
all  under  Major-General  Torbett,  as  chief  of  cavalry,  two  of  which, 
under  Merritt  and  Custer,  were  from  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  one 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  28} 

under  Crook,  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  proper,  and  the  fourth  under 
McKenzie,  was  from  the  Army  of  the  James.  The  roster  shows  the 
following  commands  : 

MAJOR-GENERAL  TORBETT,  CHIEF  OF  CAVALRY,  Commanding. 

ARMY  OF  THE  SHENANDOAH. 
BRIGADIER  GENERAL  WESLEY  MERRITT. 

FIRST  DIVISION. 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL  THOMAS  C.  DEVEN. 

First  Brigade.—  Colonel  Peter  Stagg. 

Second  Brigade.—  Colonel  Charles  T.  Fitzhugh. 

Third  Brigade. —  Brigadier-General  Alfred  Gibbs. 

THIRD  DIVISION. 
BRIGADIER-GENERAL  GEORGE  A.  CUSTER. 

First  Brigade. —  Colonel  Alexander  C.  M.  Penningto  n. 
Second  Brigade. —  Colonel  William  Wells. 
Third  Brigade. —  Colonel  Henry  Capehart. 

SECOND  DIVISION  (ARMY  OF  THE  POTOMAC.) 

MAJOR-GENERAL  GEORGE  CROOK. 

First  Brigade. —  Brigadier-General  H.  E.  Davies. 
Second  Brigade. — Colonel  J.  Jrvin  Gregg. 
Third  Brigade. —  Colonel  Charles  H.  Smith. 


ARMY   OF   THE  JAMES. 
CAVALRY   DIVISION. 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL  RANALD  S\  MCKENZIE. 

First  Brigade.—  Colonel  Robert  M.  West. 
Second  Brigade. —  Colonel  Samuel  P.  Spear. 

In  the  subsequent  pursuit  of  Lee  that  culminated  at  Appomattox, 
the  following  corps  were  also  associated  with  General  Sheridan  : 


ARMY   OF  THE  JAMES. 
[MAJOR-GENERAL  EDWARD  O.  C.  ORD. 

GENERAL  HEADOJJARTERS  AND  UNATTACHED  COMPANIES. 

Signal  Corps.—  Captain  T.  B.  Norton. 
Engineers. —  Colonel  James  F.  Hall. 


284  THE  LIFE  OF 

Cavalry. —  Colonel  Francis  Washburn,  Colonel  Edwin  V.  Sumner,  Colonel 
Charles  F.  Adams,  Jr.  »  ,  n 

TWENTY-FOURTH   ARMY   CORPS. 
MAJOR-GENERAL  JOHN  GIBBON. 

FIRST  DIVISION. 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL  ROBERT  S.  FOSTER. 

First  Brigade. —  Colonel  Thomas  O.  Osborn. 
Third  Brigade. —  Colonel  George  B.  Dandy. 
Fourth  Brigade.—  Colonel  Harrison  S.  Fairchild. 

THIRD   DIVISION. 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL  CHARLES  DEVENS. 

First  Brigade.—  Colonel  Edward  H.  Ripley. 
Second  Brigade. —  Colonel  Michael  T.  Donohue. 
Third  Brigade.—  Colonel  Samuel  H.  Robert. 

ARTILLERY. 

CAPTAIN  JAMES  R.  ANGEL. 
Of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  were  the  following  organizations  : 

SECOND  ARMY  CORPS. 
MAJOR-GENERAL  ANDREW  A.  HUMPHREYS. 

FIRST  DIVISION. 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL  NELSON  A.  MILES. 

First  Brigade.—  Colonel  George  W.  Scott. 
Second  Brigade. —  Colonel  Robert  Nugent. 
Third  Brigade.— Colonel  Henry  J.  Madill. 
Fourth  Brigade. — Colonel  John  Ramsey. 

SECOND  DIVISION. 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL  WILLIAM  HAYS. 

First  Brigade. —  Colonel  William  A.  Olmstead. 

Second  Brigade. —  Colonel  James  P.  Mclvor. 

Third  Brigade. —  Brigadier-General  Thomas  A.  Smyth. 

THIRD  DIVISION. 

BRIGADIER  ^GENERAL  GERSHOM  MOTT. 

First  Brigade. — Brigadier-General  Regis  De  Tobriand. 
Second  Brigade. —  Brigadier-General  Byron  R.  Pierce. 
Third  Brigade. —  Colonel  Robert  McAllister. 
Artillery  Brigade. —  Major  John  G.  Hazard. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  28? 

SIXTH   ARMY   CORPS. 
MAJOR-GENERAL  HORATIO  G.  WRIGHT. 

FIRST  DIVISION. 
BRIGADIER-GENERAL  FRANK  WHEATON. 

First  Brigade. —  Colonel  William  H.  Penrose. 
Second  Brigade. —  Colonel  Joseph  E.  Hamblin. 
Third  Brigade. —  Colonel  Oliver  Edwards. 

SECOND   DIVISION. 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL  GEORGE  W.  GETTY. 

First  Brigade. —  Colonel  James  N.  Warner. 

Second  Brigade. —  Brigadier-General  Lewis  A.  Grant. 

Third  Brigade.—  Colonel  Thomas  W.  Hyde. 

THIRD  DIVISION. 
BRIGADIER-GENERAL  TRUMAN  SEYMOUR. 

First  Brigade.—  Colonel  William  S.  Truex. 
Second  Brigade. —  Colonel  J.  Warren  Keifer. 
Artillery  Brigade. —  Captain  Andrew  Cowan. 

Upon  Sheridan's  vigilance,  however,  largely  depended  the  consum- 
mation of  Lee's  necessity  —  the  desperate  venture  of  a  great  soldier's 
despair.  That  last  night  in  March  was  a  dismal  one.  It  rained  until 
the  roads  became  sheets  of  water,  and  almost  impassable.  The  men 
began  to  feel  as  if  they  had  really  gone  through  Virginia  in.  a  number 
of  places.  It  seemed  as  if  the  waters  themselves  might  knock  the 
bottom  out  of  the  Confederacy. 

Just  above  Dinwiddie  Court  House,  at  least  thirty-five  miles  south 
of  Richmond,  was  the  important  strategetical  position  of  Five  Forks 
which  Lee  had  seized  and  begun  to  fortify.  In  his  later  raid,  after 
reaching  City  Point  from  Winchester,  Sheridan  had  succeeded  in 
destroying  part  of  the  Richmond  and  Danville  railroad.  Hence, 
Lee's  escape  from  Richmond  must  be  over  the  country  roads.  Pickett 
was  at  Five  Forks,  to  protect  Lee's  right,  with  nearly  all  the  Con- 
federate cavalry  and  a  large  body  of  infantry.  The  rain  held  on  all  of 
the  3oth,  the  morning  upon  which  Grant  gave  Sheridan  orders  to  "go 
in."  It  was  to  prevent  Lee's  holding  this  strategetical  position  that  the 
great  movement  and  battle  of  Five  Forks  was  fought  and  won.  The 
last  of  March  was,  said  Sheridan  to  General  Horace  Porter,  of  Grant's 
staff,  "one  of  the  liveliest  days  in  his  experience."  He  had  fought 
infantry  and  cavalry,  and  had  only  his  troopers  to  do  it  with.  The 


286 


THE  LIFE  OF 


result  was  that  he  asked  for  the  Sixth  Corps,  which  had  been  under 
him  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley.  Wrigjxt  was  too  far  off,  however,  and 
Warren  was  therefore  ordered  up  with  the  Fifth  Corps,  which  reached 
Dinwiddie  by  daylight. 

This  was  the  opening  of  the  great  "  barn  door"  movement,  graphi- 
cally presented  in  a  preceding  chapter.  General  Porter  describes 
Sheridan's  manner  at  one  period  of  that  momentous  ist  of  April : 

"  The  Fifth  Corps  had  borne  the  brunt  of  the  infantry  fighting  ever 
since  the  army  had  moved  out  on  the  29th,  and  the  gallant  men  who 
composed  it  were  eager  once  more  to  cross  bayonets  with  their  old 
antagonists.  But  the  movement  was  slow,  the  required  formation  seemed 
to  drag,  and  Sheridan,  chafing  with  impatience  and  consumed  with 
anxiety,  became  as  restive  as  a  racer  when  he  nears  the  line,  and  is 
struggling  to  make  the  start.  He  made  every  possible  appeal  for 
promptness  ;  he  dismounted  from  his  horse,  paced  up  and  down,  struck 
the  clenched  fist  of  one  hand  into  the  palm  of  the  other,  and  fretted  like 
a  caged  tiger."  * 

The  same  authority  declares  that  Five  Forks  was  "one  of  the  most 
interesting  technical  battles  of  the  war,  almost  perfect  in  conception, 
brilliant  in  execution,  strikingly  dramatic  in  its  incidents,  and  produc- 
tive of  immensely  important  results."  And  -this  is  the  way  the  news 
of  the  victory  was  carried  back,  and  received  by  Grant  and  his  staff. 
General  Porter  says  in  the  same  article  that  he  was  with  Sheridan  all 
day : 

"About  half-past  seven,  I  started  for  general  headquarters.  The 
roads  in  places  were  corduroyed  with  captured  muskets  ;  ammunition 
trains  and  ambulances  were  still  struggling  forward  for  miles  ;  team- 
sters, prisoners,  stragglers,  and  wounded  were  choking  the  roadway  ; 
the  '  coffee-boilers '  had  kindled  their  fires  ;  cheers  were  resounding  on 
all  sides,  and  everybody  was  riotous  over  the  victory.  A  horseman 
had  to  pick  his  way  through  this  jubilant  condition  of  things  as  best 
he  could,  as  he  did  not  have  the  right  of  way  by  any  means.  As  I 
galloped  past  a  group  of  men  on  the  Boydton  plank,  my  orderly  called 
out  to  them  the  news  of  the  victory.  The  only  response  he  got  was 
from  one  of  them  who  raised  his  open  hand  to  his  face,  put  his  thumb 
to  his  nose,  and  yelled  :  '  No  you  don't  —  April  fool ! '  I  then  realized 
that  it  was  the  ist  of  April.  I  had  ridden  so  rapidly  that  I  reached 
headquarters  at  Dabney's  Mill  before  the  arrival  of  the  last  courier 

Century ',  November,  1887.    «•  Grant's  Last  Campaign." 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  287 

I  had  dispatched.  General  Grant  was  sitting  with  most  of  his  staff 
about  him,  before  a  blazing  camp-fire.  He  wore  his  blue  cavalry  over- 
coat, and  the  ever-present  cigar  was  in  his  mouth.  I  began  shouting 
the  good  news  as  soon  as  I  got  in  sight,  and  in  a  moment  all  but  the 
imperturbable  general-in-chief  were  on  their  feet,  giving  vent  to 
wild  demonstrations  of  joy.  For  some  minutes  there  was  a  bewilder- 
ing state  of  excitement,  grasping  of  hands,  tossing  up  of  hats,  and 
slapping  each  other  on  the  backs.  It  meant  the  beginning  of  the  end  ; 
the  reaching  of  the  '  last  ditch.'  It  pointed  to  peace  and  home.  .  .  . 
After  having  listened  attentively  to  the  description  of  Sheridan's  day's 
work,  the  general,  with  scarcely  a  word,  walked  into  his  tent,  and  by 
the  light  of  a  flickering  candle,  took  up  his  c  manifold  writer,'  a  small 
book  which  retained  a  copy  of  the  matter  written,  and  after  finishing 
several  dispatches,  handed  them  to  an  orderly  to  be  sent  over  the  field 
wires,  came  out  and  joined  our  group  at  the  camp-fire,  and  said  as 
coolly  as  if  remarking  upon  the  state  of  the  weather  :  4 1  have  ordered 
an  immediate  assault  along  the  lines.'  This  was  about  9  o'clock." 

Next  morning  at  the  earliest  streak  of  gray,  the  men  in  blue  were  in. 
Before  sunrise  Wright  had  carried  the  lines  in  his  front,  and  was 
pushing  into  Petersburg.  Parke's  dispatch  came  next,  announcing  that 
he  had  taken  the  outer  works  in  his  front,  and  captured  twelve  guns 
and  eight  hundred  prisoners.  Ord's  came  next  with  "I  have  broken 
through  their  intrenchments "  and  Humphrey  kept  hard  and  success- 
fully at  the  foe  in  his  front.  Prisoners  by  the  thousand  were  passed 
to  the  rear.  Grant  ordered  Meade  and  Ord,  commanding  the  two 
armies  of  the  Potomac  and  the  James,  to  face  towards  the  east  and  close 
up  on  the  inner  lines  which  covered  Petersburg.  Up  to  this  point  the 
completeness  of  the  assault  had  prevented  Lee  from  attempting  the 
recovery  of  any  of  his  lost  ground.  But  he  turned  on  Parke's  corps, 
threatening  his  left  and  the  Petersburg  bridge  across  the  Appomattox, 
and,  of  course,  his  line  of  retreat.  Parke  resisted  and  repulsed  these 
fierce  attacks.  The  struggle  went  on  all  day,  without  an  actual  decis- 
ion, Grant  refusing  to  permit  a  general  assault.  He  felt  certain  that 
Petersburg  would  be  evacuated  that  night,  and  would  not  allow  the 
sacrifice  of  life  involved  in  taking  it  by  storm.  His  view  of  it  was  sus- 
tained by  the  fact  that  before  five  in  the  morning,  Parke  had  pierced  the 
lines,  and  the  city  had  surrendered.  Lee  was  out  of  it  before  three  in 
the  morning.  In  the  final  assault  on  Petersburg  by  the  famous  Ninth 
Corps  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  its  roster  showed  the  following 
commands  : 


THE   LIFE  OF 

NINTH   ARMY   CORPS. 
MAJOR-GENERAL  Jo^fN^G.  PARKE. 


288 


,  FIRST  DIVISION. 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL   ORLANDO  B.  WILLCOX. 

First  Brigade.  —  Colonel  Samuel  Harriman. 

Second  Brigade.  —  Lieutenant-Colonel  Ralph  Ely. 

Third  Brigo.de.  —  Lieutenant-Colonel  Gilbert  P.  Robinson. 

SECOND   DIVISION. 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL  ROBERT  B.  POTTER. 

First  Brigade.  —  Colonel  John  I.  Curtin. 

Second  Brigade.  —  Brigadier-General  Simon  G.  Griffin. 

Major-General  Meade  received  orders  to  press  the  whole  of  his 
available  forte  in  pursuit  of  Lee,  and  to  follow  himself,  while  Grant 
remained  to  receive  Mr.  Lincoln,  who  had  telegraphed  that  he  was  on 
the  way  to  see  him.  Richmond  was  also  taken  at  8.15,  on  the  same 
morning,  though  the  news  was  not  received  by  Grant  till  late  in  the 
afternoon,  several  hours  after  he  had  joined  the  troops  pursuing  Lee. 
The  Twenty-fifth  Army  Corps  of  the  Army  of  the  James,  under  Major- 
General  Godfrey  Weitzel,  to  whom  was  assigned  the  task  of  entering 
andjDCCUpying  Richmond,  reported  its  roster  as  follows  : 

FIRST  DIVISION. 
BRIGADIER  GENERAL  AUGUST  V.  KAUTZ. 

First  Brigade.  —  Colonel  Alonzo  G.  Draper. 

Second  Brig-zde.  —  Brigadier-General  Edward  A.  Wild. 

Attached  Brigade.—  Colonel  Charles  S.  Russell. 

SECOND  DIVISION. 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL  WILLIAM  BIRNEY. 

First  Brigade.—  Colonel  James  Shaw,  Jr. 

Second  Brigade.  —  Colonel  Ulysses  Doublebay. 

Third  Brigade.—  Colonel  W.  W.  Woodward. 
Artillery  Brigade.  —  Captain  Loomis  L.  Langdon. 

Sheridan  was  far  ahead  and  pushing  fiercely  to  cut  off  Lee's  retreat 
southward.  Grant  himself  was  somewhat  alarmed  for  his  safety,  and 
urged  Meade  forward  with  the  infantry  corps  as  rapidly  as  was  possible. 
As  always,  much  depended  upon  the  qualities  and  characters  of  the 
corps  commanders,  who  in  these  circumstances  proved  equal  to  all  cir- 
cumstances, aiding  and  reinforcing  Sheridan  at  all  opportune  periods. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  289 

On  the  evening  of  April  5th,  one  of  Sheridan's  scouts  in  Confederate 
uniform,  was  brought  to  Grant,  or  seen  and  recognized  by  his  staff  while 
being  arrested.  He  brought,  wrapped  in  tinfoil  and  concealed  in  his 
mouth,  Sheridan's  famous  dispatch  describing  the  situation  at  Jeters- 
ville,  and  ending  with  the  suggestive  remark  "  I  wish  you  were  here 
yourself."  Jetersville  is  a  station  on  the  Richmond  and  Danville  road, 
about  thirty  miles  south  by  west  of  Richmond.  The  infantry,  General 
Ord  in  advance,  was  swinging  by  the  left  flank  a  little  further  south, 
and  were  beyond  Nottoway  Station.  Sheridan  and  the  cavalry  had  struck 
directly  north  by  west  from  Dinwiddie  and  Five  Forks,  after  the  battle, 
to  intercept  Lee  as  he  moved  south  from  Petersburg  and  Richmond. 

Grant's  great  anxiety  was  that  Lee  should  not  escape  and  precipitate 
himself  on  Sherman.  He  ordered  Miles'  division  to  swing  around  to  the 
White  Oak  road,  and  join  Sheridan.  The  furious  bombardment  at 
Petersburg  was  also  kept  up  till  morning.  Miles  reported  at  daybreak. 
He  was  ordered  to  attack  the  enemy  at  the  intersection  of  the  White 
Oak  and  Claiborne  roads.  They  were  found  in  force  and  position,  and 
Sheridan  followed  Miles  immediately  with  two  divisions  of  the  Fifth 
Corps.  Driven  from  their  position,  the  Confederates  were  pursued  by 
Miles  across  Hatcher's  Run  and  towards  the  Southside  railroad. 
Humphrey  soon  arrived  with  the  balance  of  his  corps,  and  reassumed 
full  command.  Sheridan  then  returned  to  Five  Forks  with  the  Fifth 
Corps.  He  sent  Merritt  westward  across  Hatcher's  Run  to  break  up 
the  rebel  cavalry,  which  had  reassembled  north  of  the  stream.  They, 
however,  would  not  fight,  and  were  pursued  by  Merritt  in  a  northerly 
direction  to  the  Appomattox  River.  Sheridan  then,  with  the  Fifth 
Corps,  crossed  Hatcher's  Run,  and  struck  the  Southside  railroad,  north 
of  Five  Forks.  Meeting  no  opposition,  they  marched  rapidly,  and  came 
up  in  flank  and  rear  of  the  enemy,  opposing  Miles.  During  this  interval 
Miles  had  gained  a  signal  victory,  and  when  Sheridan  arrived  the  rebels 
were  in  a  precipitate  flight.  Sheridan  overtook  them  on  the  main  road 
along  the  Appomattox  River,  and  the  cavalry  and  Crawford's  division 
attacked  them  at  nightfall.  In  the  darkness,  however,  they  escaped. 

West  of  the  rebel  centre  all  had  now  been  driven  beyond  the  Appo- 
mattox by  Sheridan,  who  was  directed  by  Grant  to  cross  the  river 
west  of  Lee's  army,  with  the  Fifth  Corps  and  his  cavalry.  "  You  may 
cross  where  you  please,"  said  Grant.  "  The  position  and  movements 
of  the  enemy  will  dictate  your  movements  after  you  cross.  All  we 
want  is  to  capture  or  beat  the  enemy."  Sheridan,  anticipating  the 
evacuation  of  Petersburg,  had  commenced  moving  west.  The  cavalry 

19 


29o  THE  LIFE  OF 

advanced  and  pressed  the  enemy's  trains.  Sheridan  designed  to  reach 
the  Danville  road  as  rapidly  as  possible.  Grant  telegraphed  him  : 

"It  is  understood  that  the  enemy  will  make  a  stand  at  Amelia  Court 
House.  .  .  .  The  first  object  will  be  to  intercept  Lee's  army ; 
the  second  to  secure  Burksville." 

Sheridan  moved  in  accord  with  orders.  Soon  after  breaking  camp 
there  was  some  skirmishing  on  Merritt's  front,  but  no  serious  fighting 
occurred  until  Deep  .Creek  was  reached.  At  this  place  a  strong  body 
of  infantry  was  encountered.  Merritt  attacked  with  spirit,  driving  the 
enemy  from  the  ford,  and  pushing  vigorously  on  the  opposite  side. 
The  Fifth  Corps  followed  rapidly,  and  picked  up  many  prisoners,  as 
well  as  five  abandoned  field  guns.  But  there  was  no  fighting  this  day, 
except  by  our  cavalry.  At  night,  Sheridan  had  1,300  prisoners. 
The  cavalry  encamped  at  Deep  Creek.  By  daylight,  on  the  4th,  our 
troopers  were  again  in  motion  ;  Merritt  moving  towards  the  Appo- 
mattox,  and  following  the  force  he  had  driven  from  Deep  Creek 
the  day  before,  while  Crook  was  ordered  to  strike  the  Danville  road, 
between  Jetersville  and  Burkeville,  and  then  move  up  to  Jetersville. 
The  Fifth  Corps  moved  rapidly  in  the  same  direction.  During  this  day 
Grant  sent  a  dispatch  to  Sheridan,  stating  that  two  railroad  trains, 
loaded  with  supplies,  were  on  the  way  from  Danville,  for  Lee's  army, 
and  had  been  up  the  road  to  Farmville. 

"It  was  understood,"  he  said,  "that  Lee  was  to  accompany  his 
troops,  and  that  he  was  bound  for  Danville,  by  way  of  Farmville. 
Unless  you  have  more  positive  information  of  the  movements  of  the 
enemy,  push  on  with  all  dispatch  to  Farmville,  and  try  to  intercept  the 
enemy  there." 

Sheridan,  however,  was  again  in  Lee's  front.  At  5  o'clock  the 
head  of  the  Fifth  Corps  arrived  at  Jetersville,  after  a  march  of  sixteen 
miles.  Here  a  message  was  captured  from  Lee,  ordering  200,000 
rations  immediately  from  Danville,  to  feed  his  army.  The  dispatch 
had  not  yet  gone  over  the  wires,  but  Sheridan  gave  it  to  a  scout  to  take 
to  Burkeville,  and  have  it  telegraphed  from  there,  in  the  hope  that  the 
rations  might  be  forwarded  within  the  Union  lines.  The  scout  suc- 
ceeded in  sending  the  message,  but  other  news  traveled  quite  as  fast, 
and  the  rations  went  on  to  Farmville,  where  they  were  captured. 
Discovering  that  Lee  and  his  army  were  at  Amelia,  Sheridan  ordered 
Griffin  (Fifth  Corps)  to  intrench  across  the  railroad,  until  he  could  be 
reinforced.  That  command  went  into  position,  throwing  up  breast- 
works as  it  arrived,  and  Sheridan  at  once  sent  word  back  to  Grant  that 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  291 

he  had  intercepted  Lee.  He  also  sent  an  aide-de-camp  to  Meade  at 
Deep  Creek,  a  long  day's  march  from  Jetersville.  It  was  well  into 
the  night  when  the  messenger  arrived,  and  although  Meade  was  un- 
well, and  in  bed,  he  roused  himself  at  the  stirring  news,  and  issued  an 
order  to  march  at  3  o'clock  in  the  morning.  Meade  was  the  senior 
of  Sheridan,  in  rank  and  service,  but  he  sent  him  word : 

"  The  Second  and  Sixth  corps  will  be  with  you  as  soon  as  possible. 
In  the  meantime  your  wishes  or  suggestions  as  to  any  movement  other 
than  the  simple  one  of  overtaking  you,  will  be  promptly  acceded  to  by 
me,  regardless  of  any  other  consideration  than  the  vital  one  of  destroy- 
ing the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia." 

Sheridan  had  meanwhile  recalled  Merritt  and  McKenzie  from  the 
right,  and  the  head  of  Meade's  command  encountered  the  cavalry 
marching  in  the  darkness.  The  double  column  crowded  the  road,  and 
the  infantry  was  delayed  until  Merritt's  troopers  had  passed. 

Everything  was  quiet  that  night  at  Jetersville.  In  the  morning  the 
enemy  made  no  demonstration.  Sheridan  sent  a  brigade  under  Davies 
as  far  to  trie  left  as  Paine's  cross-roads,  five  miles  northwest,  to  ascer- 
tain if  Lee  was  making  attempts  to  escape  in  that  direction.  Davies 
soon  discovered  that  Sheridan's  suspicions  were  correct.  Lee  was 
already  moving  a  train  of  wagons  towards  Painesville,  escorted  by  a 
considerable  body  of  cavalry.  Davies  at  once  attacked,  and  defeated 
this  cavalry,  burned  180  wagons,  and  captured  five  cannons  and  several 
hundred  prisoners.  A  force  of  rebel  infantry  was  sent  to  cut  him  oft'. 
Two  brigades  of  Crook's  were  pushed  to  his  assistance,  and  a  heavy 
fight  ensued,  in  which  the  rebels  were  severely  repelled.  At  2 
o'clock  Meade  arrived  at  Jetersville  in  advance  of  the  Second  Corps, 
which  came  up  an  hour  later.*  Meade  was  still  unwell,  and  requested 

*The  forces  at  General  Meade's  headquarters  consisted  of  the  following 
commands  : 

PROVOST  GUARD.— COLONEL  GEORGE  N.  MACY. 

Engineer  Brigade. —  Brigadier-General  Henry  W.  Benham. 
Battalion  United  States  Engineers. —  Captain  Franklin  Hanvood. 
Artillery.  —  Brigadier-General  Henry  J.  Hunt. 
Siege  Train. —  Colonel  Henry  L.  Abbot. 
Headquarters  Guard.—  Captain  Richard  G.  Lay. 
Quartermaster's  Guard. —  Colonel  R.  N.  Batchelder. 
Signal  Corps. —  Captain  Charles  N.  Davis. 
Independent  Brigade.—  Colonel  Charles  H.  T.  Collis. 


292 


THE  LIFE  OF 


Sheridan  to  put  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  into  position  as  it  arrived. 
Sheridan  placed  two  divisions  of  Humphreys  onthe  left  of  the  Fifth 
Corps,  and  one  on  the  right,  and  Merritt,  who  had  now  come  up,  was 
placed  on  the  left  of  the  infantry.  The  vigorous  movement  against 
Crook  on  the  left  led  Sheridan  to  believe  the  enemy  to  be  escaping  in 
that  direction.  He  was  anxious  to  attack  with  the  force  in  hand  —  his 
cavalry  and  two  corps  of  infantry  ;  but  at  this  juncture,  Meade  felt  him- 
self well  enough  to  come  out  and  assume  command,  and,  much  »to 
Sheridan's  mortification,  he  decided  not  to  attack  until  the  arrival  of 
the  Sixth  Corps.  Meade  was  the  senior,  and  his  wishes  prevailed  ;  the 
attack  was  delayed.  A  captured  letter  from  a  rebel  officer  to  his  mother, 
describing  the  condition  of  the  Confederate  forces,  was  just  then  brought 
to  Sheridan,  who  sent  it  to  Grant  with  the  following  dispatch  : 

JETERSVILLE,  3  p.  M. 

I  send  you  the  enclosed  letter,  which  will  give  you  an  idea  of  the 
condition  of  the  enemy  and  their  whereabouts.  I  sent  General  Davies' 
brigade  this  morning  around  on  my  left  flank.  He  captured  at  Paine's 
cross-roads  five  pieces  of  artillery,  about  two  hundred  wagons,  and 
eight  or  nine  battle-flags,  and  a  number  of  prisoners.  The  Second 
Army  Corps  is  now  coming  up.  1 ivish  you  'were  here  yourself.  I 
feel  confident  of  capturing  the  Army  of  NorthernVirginia,  if  we  exert 
ourselves.  I  see  no  escape  for  Lee.  I  will  put  all  my  cavalry  out  on 
our  left  flank,  except  McKenzie,  who  is  on  the  right. 

Immediately  on  receipt  of  Sheridan's  dispatch,  Grant  determined 
to  join  his  cavalry  commander.  A  ride  of  twenty  miles,  with  an  escort 
of  only  fourteen  men,  skirting  close  to  the  enemy's  lines  a  portion  of 
the  time,  brought  Grant  to  Sheridan's  bivouac  at  twelve  minutes  past 
ten.  This  was  on  the  5th  of  April. 

The  Sixth  Corps  had  arrived  at  6  o'clock,  and  was  placed  by 
Meade  on  the  right  of  the  army,  but  no  arrangement  had  been  made  to 

The  following  other  commands  were  also  engaged  at  various  points  on  the 
great  arc  of  our  operations  : 

INDEPENDENT   DIVISION   OF  THE   ARMY   OF  THE  JAMES. 

BRIGADIER-GENERAL  JOHN  W.  TURNER. 
First  Brigade. — Lieutenant-Colonel  Andrew  Potter. 
Second  Brigade.—  Colonel  William  B.  Curtis. 
Third  Brigade. —  Colonel  Thomas  M.  Harris. 

DEFENSES   OF   BERMUDA   HUNDRED. 

MAJOR-GENERAL  GEORGE  L.  HARTSUFF. 
Pontoniers. —  Lieutenant-Colonel  Peter  S.  Michil. 
Separate  Brigade.—  Brigadier-General  Joseph  B.  Carr. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 


advance  before 
morning.  Sheri- 
dan was  convinced 
that  Lee  would  not 
remain  to  be  at- 
tacked, and  Grant 
coincided  with 
him.  He  deter- 
mined to  forestall 
Lee's  design.  After 
midnight  Grant 
visited  Meade, 
whom  he  found  in 
bed  and  still  ailing. 
Meade  explained 
his  views  to  Grant, 
but  failed  to  con- 
vince him,  and  the 
general  took  a  pen- 
cil and  wrote  in- 
structions for  the 
movement  of  the 
entire  army,  revers- 
ing Meade's  plan, 
directing  the  whole 
force  to  move  towards  the  left  flank  at  daylight.  Sheridan  with  the 
cavalry  was  dispatched  in  the  direction  of  Deatonsville,  about  five 
miles  west  of  the  railroad. 

The  movement  of  General  Lee  was  a  self-evident  one.  Leaving 
Amelia  Court  House,  he  pushed  south  by  west  towards  Danville.  It 
was  not  his  purpose  to  fight  our  army  except  as  necessary  to  make 
secure  his  retreat.  Other  troops  were  stationed  to  the  south,  and  sup- 
plies were  more  abundant.  It  was  necessary  that  our  pursuit  should  be 
hot  and  determined.  On  the  6th,  Sheridan  and  Ord  followed  closely  on 
the  heels  of  Lee,  and  the  fierce  battle  of  Saylor's  Creek  was  fought 
against  the  rebel  rear.  It  was  a  hot  fight,  and  our  cavalry,  especially 
under  Custer  and  Merritt,  performed  prodigies  of  valor.  Six  general 
officers,  7,000  prisoners,  and  a  large  number  of  flags  and  guns  were 
captured.  Lee's  wagon  train  and  headquarters  wagons  were  captured. 

Sheridan  had  ordered  General  Crook  to  strike  another  of  the  Con- 
federate wagon  trains  then  being  escorted  on  his  left  by  a  heavy  force 


GEN.  J.  IRVIN  GREGG, 

A   DISTINGUISHED   BRIGADE   COMMANDER   IN   SHERIDAN'S  CORPS. 


294  THE  LIFE  OF 

of  cavalry.  In  this  attack  the  Federals  were  repulsed,  but  General 
Custer,  who  had  pressed  far  in  advance  or"  Crook,  had  arrived  at  Savior's 
Creek,  a  tributary  of  the  Appomattox,  and  was  intrenched  across  the 
path  of  the  Confederates.  Two  divisions,  those  of  Crook  and  Deven, 
now  pressed  up  to  his  support,  and  the  Confederate  line  was  pierced 
and  400  wagons,  sixteen  guns,  and  many  prisoners  were  captured. 

EwelPs  corps  was  thus  cutoff  from  the  main  body  of  Confederates, 
and  being  attacked  by  overwhelming  forces,  after  the  most  desperate 
fighting  fell  back  to  Saylor's  Creek.  This  position  was  held  until  the 
Federals  were  reinforced  by  Wheaton's  division,  and  after  stubborn 
fighting  E well's  veterans  surrendered.  The  fighting  began  again  early 
in  the  morning,  and  the  pursuit  was  resumed  by  the  Second  Corps,  which 
came  up  with  the  Confederates  under  General  Mahone,  at  High  Bridge, 
where  a  spirited  engagement  took  place,  resulting  in  victory  to  the 
Federals.  Generally  the  Confederates  felt  that  the  "  crack  o'  doom" 
was  near. 

Sheridan  always  appeared  to  anticipate  Grant's  plans  and  wishes. 
On  that  last  pursuit,  after  the  fight  at  Saylor's  Creek,  the  general 
thought  it  was  necessary  to  extend  the  cavalry  pursuit  further  to  the 
west,  in  order  to  intercept  the  fugitives  and  to  capture  any  scattered 
forces  that  might  slough  oft'  from  Lee's  main  army.  Sheridan  had 
already  taken  steps.  He  was  endeavoring  to  capture  the  trains  of  pro- 
visions which  had  been  sent  Lee  from  Danville  or  Lynchburg.  He 
proposed  to  capture  them  and  he  did  it.  This  tremendous  activity  of 
Sheridan  had  its  effect  on  the  enemy.  Says  a  Southern  writer  : 

"  And  so  the  retreat  rolls  on.  We  are  passing  abandoned  cannon, 
and  wrecked  and  overturned  wagons,  and  their  now  useless  contents 
belonging  to  the  quartermasters ;  horses  and  mules  dead  or  dying  in 
the  mud.  At  night  our  march  is  lighted  by  the  fires  of  burning  wagons  ; 
and  the  hoarse  roar  of  cannon  and  the  rattle  of  small  arms  before, 
behind,  and  on  our  flanks  are  ever  in  our  ears.  The  constant  march- 
ing and  fighting  without  food  or  sleep  is  rapidly  thinning  the  ranks  of 
this  grand  old  army.  Men  who  have  stood  by  their  flags  since  the 
beginning  of  the  war  now  fall  out  of  the  ranks  and  are  captured,  sim- 
ply because  it  is  beyond  their  power  of  physical  endurance  to  go  any 
further." 

But  one  hope  remained  to  Lee.  Ruefully  aware  that  Sheridan  had 
intercepted  his  flight,  he  presumed  his  way  blocked  by  cavalry  alone, 
and  at  once  ordered  a  charge  of  infantry.  Sheridan  was  with  his  cav- 
alry near  the  Court  House  when  the  Army  of  Virginia  made  its  last 
charge.  By  his  order,  his  troopers,  who  were  in  line  of  battle,  dis- 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  29^ 

mounted,  gave  ground  gradually,  while  showing  a  steady  front,  so  as 
to  allow  our  weary  infantry  time  to  form  and  take  position.  This 
effected,  the  horsemen  moved  swiftly  to  the  right  and  mounted,  reveal- 
ing lines  of  solid  infantry  in  battle  array,  before  whose  wall  of  gleam- 
ing bayonets  the  astonished  enemy  recoiled  in  blank  despair,  as  Sheri- 
dan and  his  troopers,  passing  briskly  around  the  rebel  left,  prepared  to 
charge  the  confused,  reeling  masses.  A  white  flag  was  now  waved  by 
the  enemy  before  General  Custer,  who  held  our  cavalry  advance,  with 
the  information  that  they  had  concluded  to  surrender.  Riding  over  to 
Appomattox  Court  House,  Sheridan  was  met  by  General  Gordon,  who 
requested  a  suspension  of  hostilities,  with  the  assurance  that  negotia- 
tions were  then  pending  between  Grant  and  Lee  for  a  capitulation. 

It  was  an  all  night  vigil  on  the  8th  of  April.  The  day  had  been 
one  ot  hard  fighting,  exciting  events,  forced  marches.  Sheridan  had 
placed  his  cavalry  across  the  lines  of  Lee's  retreat.  The  troopers  stood 
to  horse  all  that  long,  chill  night.  The  commands  of  Ord,of  the  Army 
of  the  James,  and  of  Griffin  and  Gibbon,  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac, 
were  being  hurried  to  position  behind  the  cavalry  screen.  The  end 
was  near,  and  every  one  worked  hard  and  earnestly.  Morning  came, 
and  its  gray  shadows  were  not  lifted  when  orders  came  to  move  forward. 
The  "  Spencers"  of  the  cavalrymen  were  at  once  brought  into  effective 
use.  We  were  on  the  higher  ground,  and  looking  over  the  plain  below 
it  could  be  seen  that  Lee's  army  was  hemmed  in  and  cut  oft'.  The 
Seventh  Michigan  Cavalry  held  the  advance  directly  to  the  south. 
"  Oh  !  for  Sheridan,  now,"  was  the  ejaculation  of  its  gallant  commander, 
Colonel  Briggs.  Towards  the  west  Custer's  column  was  seen  advanc- 
ing. Informed  of  the  condition  of  affairs,  Custer  immediately  pre- 
pared for  a  charge,  and  said  to  Colonel  Briggs,  "  Show  me  the  way." 

"  Custer's  command  on  this  occasion  presented  a  most  striking  and 
beautiful  effect  in  color,  as  also  in  concentrated  power  for  action.  Fol- 
lowing the  general  and  his  staff,  and  thrown  to  the  morning  breeze, 
floated  not  less  than  twenty-five  rebel  battle-flags  captured  from  the 
enemy  within  ten  days.  These,  with  division,  brigade,  and  regimental 
colors  of  the  command,  the  red  neckties  of  the  men,  and  the  blue  and 
yellow  of  their  uniforms,  made  a  picture,  as  with  flashing  sabres 
they  moved  into  view,  at  once  thrilling  and  beautiful."* 

Just  as  the  lines  were  formed,  and  the  buglers  waited  an  order  to 
charge,  there  suddenly  emerged  from  out  a  piece  of  woods  in  the  left 
front  three  or  four  horsemen,  the  leader  of  whom  waved  something 
white  over  his  head.  It  was  Lee's  famous  flag  of  truce.  They  rode 

*  Life  and  Deeds  of  General  U.  S.  Grant,  p.  64,  by  Frank  A.  Burr,  Philadelphia. 


296  THE  LIFE  OF 

up  to  Colonel  Briggs,  who  had  moved  forward  to  meet  them,  and  asked 
for  the  "  general  commanding."          v  ^ 

Custer  was  pointed  out,  and  the  Confederates  rode  rapidly  towards 
him.  A  few  moments'  parley,  and  then  they  returned,  Brigadier- 
General  Whittaker,  Custer's  chief  of  staff,  riding  with  them.  All 
this,  brief  as  the  time  was,  the  whole  line  saw,  and  the  word  passed 
that  Lee  was  to  surrender.  Colonel  Briggs  was  permitted  to  ride 
with  the  returning  party,  and  it  is  from  his  narrative  that  this  account 
is  abridged.  The  party  rode  to  Lee's  headquarters.  General  Whit- 
taker  entered  with  the  flag-bearer.  Colonel  Briggs,  remaining  with- 
out, was  quickly  interrogated  as  to  the  object  of  the  flag  of  truce.  On 
suggesting  that  it  probably  related  to  terms  of  surrender,  many  of  the 
Confederate  officers  grew  indignant.  One  officer  felt  especially  insulted 
and  had  to  be  suppressed  by  his  associates.  The  conversation  within 
lasted  twenty  minutes,  and  then  the  party  moved  away. 

General  Whittaker  tells  the  story  of  the  flag  negotiations  more  in 
detail.  When  the  bearer  rode  up,  and  presenting  General  Lee's  com- 
pliments, asked  for  a  cessation  of  hostilities,  pending  a  reply  from 
General  Grant  as  ^o  surrender,  General  Custer  replied  : 

u  I  am  not  in  sole  command  upon  this  field,  but  will  report  the 
request  to  General  Sheridan,  and  I  can  only  stop  the  charge  upon  an 
announcement  of  an  unconditional  surrender." 

Custer  turned  to  his  chief  of  staff,  saying : 

14  Whittaker,  return  with  this  officer,  and  say  to  General  Lee  that  I 
cannot  suspend  hostilities  or  stay  this  charge  without  the  assurance 
that  his  army  is  here  to  be  unconditionally  surrendered ;  and  get  me 
his  answer  as  soon  as  possible." 

The  mission  was  undertaken  and  made.  On  arrival  at  Lee's 
headquarters,  it  was  learned  that  he  had  gone  in  search  of, General 
Grant.  Generals  Longstreet  and  Gordon  were  found,  and  their  assur- 
ances were  received,  that  an  unconditional  surrender  of  the  Army  of 
Northern  Virginia  was  intended.  General  Whittaker  then  started  to 
return  to  Custer.  Lee's  army  was  found,  during  the  ride  through  it,  to 
be  ready  for  battle.  Grant  was  not  aware  then  that  Sheridan  had  built 
his  wall  of  infantry  across  Lee's  path,  and  the  latter  desired  to  make 
terms  before  this  knowledge  should  reach  the  general.  Our  lines  were 
moving,  as  Whittaker  dashed  into  the  centre,  waving  the  flag  of  truce 
above  his  head.  This,  by  the  way,  was  a  towel  obtained  from  a  vil- 
lager. After  its  important  use  was  over,  General  Whittaker  cut  oft' a 
corner  of  it,  handing  the  towel  itself  to  General  Custer  as  a  memento 
of  the  historical  occasion.  It  is  now  in  Mrs.  Custer's  possession. 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN.  297 

A  writer  in  the  Blue  and  Gray  describes  some  of  that  morning's 
scenes  as  follows  : 

"Had  it  been  only  Sheridan  that  barred  the  way  the  surrender 
would  not  have  occurred  at  Appomattox  ;  but  Gordon  only  drove  back 
the  cavalry  to  find  himself  confronted  by  the  Army  of  the  James,  and 
their  bayonets  could  now  be  seen  advancing  through  the  trees,  and  the 
road  was  blocked  with  ten  times  his  number. 

"  It  was  then  that  the  flag  of  truce  was  raised  by  an  agreement 
with  Sheridan  and  Gordon. 

"Presently  a  Federal  cavalry  officer  was  observed  coming  down 
the  road  toward  our  forces  ;  he  wore  his  hair  very  long,  and  it  was  of 
a  light  or  reddish  color.  In  his  hand  he  carried  a  white  handkerchief, 
which  he  constantly  waved  up  and  down.  He  inquired  for  General 
Lee,  and  was  directed  to  General  Longstreet  upon  the  hill.  Upon 
approaching  the  general  he  dismounted  and  said  :  '  General  Long- 
street,  in  the  name  of  General  Sheridan  and  myself  I  demand  the  sur- 
render ot  this  army.  I  am  General  Custer.' 

u  General  Longstreet  replied  :  '  I  am  not  in  command  of  this  army. 
General  Lee  is,  and  he  has  gone  back  to  meet  General  Grant  in  regard 
to  a  surrender.' 

"  4  Well,'  said  Custer,  4  no  matter  about  General  Grant ;  we  demand 
the  surrender  be  made  to  us.  If  you  do  not  do  so,  we  will  renew  hos- 
tilities, and  any  bloodshed  will  be  upon  your  head !' 

"  '  Oh,  well,'  said  Longstreet,  '  if  you  do  that  I  will  do  my  best  to 
meet  you.'  Then  turning  to  his  staff',  he  said  :  '  Colonel  Manning, 
please  order  General  Johnston  to  move  his  division  to  the  front,  to  the 
right  of  General  Gordon.  Colonel  Latrobe,  please  order  General 
Pickett  forward  to  General  Gordon's  left.  Do  it  at  once ! '  Custer 
listened  with  surprise  depicted  upon  his  countenance ;  he  had  not 
thought  so  many  of  our  troops  were  at  hand  with  Longstreet.  He, 
cooling  oft*  immediately,  said  : 

"  '  General,  probably  we  had  better  wait  until  we  hear  from  Grant 
and  Lee.  I  will  speak  to  General  Sheridan  about  it ;  don't  move  your 
troops  yet.' 

"  And  he  mounted  and  withdrew  in  a  much  more  quiet  style  than  in 
his  approach. 

"As  he  passed  out  of  hearing,  Longstreet  said  quietly,  with  that 
peculiar  chuckle  of  his  : 

"  '  Ha  !  ha  !  that  young  man  has  never  learned  to  play  the  game  of 
"brag."'  The  divisions  of  Johnston  and  Pickett  were  only  a  myth, 
and  had  no  existence  whatever  after  the  fight  at  Five  Forks." 


298  THE  LIFE  OF 

Lieutenant-General  J.  B.  Gordon,  now  with  General  Joseph  E. 
Johnston,  the  most  distinguished  of  Jiving  Confederate  officers,  told  to 
Colonel  F.  A.  Burr  the  following  interesting  incidents  of  the  surrender 
at  Appomattox  : 

"  A  cavalry  officer  came  to  me  from  Sheridan  with  a  flag  of  truce. 
He  was  a  handsome  fellow  and  very  polite.  Saluting,  he  said  : 

"  '  Is  this  General  Gordon?  I  am  the  bearer  of  General  Sheridan's 
compliments,  and  he  demands  your  unconditional  surrender.' 

u  'Well,  colonel,'  (or  whatever  I  saw  his  rank  was),  I  answered, 
lyou  will  please  return  my  compliments  to  General  Sheridan,  and  say 
that  I  shall  not  surrender.' 

"  '  Then,'  he  said,  'you  will  be  annihilated  in  half  an  hour.  We 
have  you  completely  surrounded.' 

"  '  Very  well,  sir,'  I  replied.  1 1  am  probably  as  well  aware  of  my 
situation  as  you  are,  but  that  is  my  answer.' 

"  '  You  don't  mean  that ! '  he  exclaimed. 

"  '  Yes  I  do,  sir,'  I  said  ;  4  the  only  thing  I  propose  to  say  is  what  I 
have  already  said  through  my  staff  officer  —  that  a  flag  of  truce  is  in 
existence  between  General  Lee  and  General  Grant.'  I  wras  not  going 
to  surrender,-  because  I  knew  it  was  coming.  I  was  not  going  to  let 
Sheridan  capture  me  in  that  way. 

"  '  Then  you  will  be  annihilated,'  he  said,  and  rode  away. 

"While  I  had  been  sitting  there  waiting,  the  firing  had  almost 
ceased.  The  infantry  on  my  flanks  had  not  changed  their  position 
much,  as  they  had  been  moving  up  very  slowly.  I  was  firing  artillery 
at  the  time,  so  as  to  check  them.  In  a  few  minutes  Sheridan  himself 
came  up  with  his  staff'.  He  was  riding  an  immense  black  horse.  I 
will  never  forget  how  he  looked  with  his  short  legs  sticking  out  on 
either  side.  We  had  very  much  the  same  sort  of  parley  as  had  occurred 
between  the  other  officer  and  myself.  Indeed,  the  language  was  almost 
a  literal  repetition.  Finally  I  said  to  him  :  '  General,  I  hardly  think 
that  it  is  worth  while  for  us  to  parley.  I  have  made  up  my  mind  not 
to  surrender,  and  I  shall  accept  any  consequences  which  may  follow 
this  determination.  I  wish  simply  to  give  you  the  information  which 
was  sent  me  by  General  Lee.  All  I  know  is  that  there  is  a  flag  of 
truce  in  existence,  and  I  only  know  the  bare  fact.' 

"  '  Did  you  say  that  you  have  a  letter  from  General  Lee? '  he  asked. 

"  I  handed  him  the  letter. 

"  He  looked  it  over  and  said  :  '  I  suppose,  then,  that  the  only  thing 
we  can  do  is  to  cease  firing.' 

"  'I  think  so,'  I  replied. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  299 

"  He  then  said  to  me  :  '  If  you  will  withdraw  your  forces  to  a  cer- 
tain place,  I  will  withdraw  mine,  and  wait  to  see  what  happens.' 

44  We  got  down  off  our  horses,  and  taking  a  seat  on  the  grass  talked 
there  for  some  time.  In  the  meantime  I  had  forgotten  that  early  in 
the  morning  I  had  detached  a  force  to  go  back  and  over  on  a  brow  of  a 
hill  to  prevent  the  cavalry  from  coming  around  between  Longstreet  and 
myself.  While  we  were  sitting  on  the  grass  I  heard  a  roll  of  musketry, 
and  looking  over  to  where  the  force  had  been  placed  saw  it  firing  into 
some  cavalry  that  had  ridden  down  in  that  direction. 

44  4  H — 1,  sir,  what  does  this  mean? '  cried  Sheridan. 

4'  4 1  am  very  sorry  about  it,'  I  replied,  as  I  explained  the  circum- 
stances, and  he  and  I  each  sent  an  officer  over  to  the  hill  to  stop  the 
firing. 

44 1  saved  Sheridan's  life  that  morning  beyond  question.  One  of 
my  sharpshooters  was  a  sour  sort  of  fellow,  and  his  only  idea  was  that 
when  he  saw  a  blue-coat  it  was  his  duty  to  shoot  at  it.  I  had  the 
sharpshooters  around  me  when  Sheridan  came  up  with  the  flag  of  truce, 
and  I  saw  this  fellow  draw  his  gun.  l  What  do  you  mean?'  I  cried, 
4  this  is  a  flag  of  truce.'  He  did  not  pay  the  slightest  attention  to  me, 
and  was  just  about  firing  when  I  knocked  up  his  gun  and  it  went  off, 
over  Sheridan's  head.  4  Let  him  stay  on  his  own  side,  general,'  he 
muttered. 

44  General  Sheridan  and  I  sat  on  the  ground,  close  to  the  brick  house 
where  Lee  and  Grant  met,  in  the  orchard.  I  had  passed  the  house  in 
the  morning.  We  chaffed  each  other  a  little  in  the  course  of  the  conver- 
sation. Sheridan  saying :  4 1  believe  I  have  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting 
you  before.'  I  replied  that  we  had  had  some  little  acquaintance  in  the 
Valley  of  Virginia.  He  turned  the  thread  of  conversation  to  some  guns 
he  had  received  in  the  valley.  Sheridan  had  captured  nearly  all  of 
Early's  artillery,  and  some  more  had  been  sent  to  him  from  Richmond. 
Some  wag  had  written  with  chalk  on  one  of  these  guns  :  4  Respectfully 
consigned  to  Major-General  Sheridan  through  General  Early.'  Sheri- 
dan had  heard  of  this,  and  he  was  very  much  amused  at  it ;  but  whether 
he  ever  saw  such  words  upon  a  gun  I  do  not  know.  When  he  was 
through  with  his  story  I  suggested  that  I  also  had  two  guns  which  I 
could  consign  to  him,  and  with  the  more  grace  because  they  had  come 
from  him  that  very  morning. 

44  Sheridan  came  with  a  full  staff  and  remained  with  me  about  an 
hour  and  a  half.  My  recollection  is  that  we  stayed  at  that  place  until 
we  received  information  that  General  Lee  and  General  Grant  had 
agreed." * 

*  From  Col.  F.  A.  Burr's  Life  and  Deeds  of  General  U.  S.  Grant. 


THE  LIFE  OF 

It  was  high  noon  of  the  yth  of  April,  1865,  when  Grant  with  his 
staff,  was  at  the  little  Farmville  hcrfeir  The  village  is  south  of  the 
Appomattox,  and  is  famous  because  Grant  opened  from  there  the  sur- 
render correspondence  with  Lee.  The  latter  was  making  a  bold  stand, 
north  of  the  river,  and  Crook  with  his  cavalry  was  being  roughly 
handled.  Humphreys'  corps  was  also  on  the  north  side,  and  bearing 
the  brunt  of  Lee's  whole  army.  The  Sixth  Corps  was  hurried  over 
that  night.  Sheridan  was  to  the  south,  still  moving  by  that  terrible  left 
flank  with  the  rest  of  his  cavalry.  Lee  was  confronted  again  by 
Grant's  fatal  semi-circle.  He  could  only  break  up  and  flee  to  the 
Appalachians  at  the  west  —  sure  destruction  —  or  he  could  risk  all  on  a 
final  battle.  General  Grant  offered  another  alternative,  and  asked  for 
his  surrender,  on  the  afternoon  of  the  yth  of  April.  Sheridan  had 
sent  word  that  he  would  probably  capture  Lee's  supply  train,  which 
had  nearly  reached  Appomattox  Court  House.  Lee  received  the 
demand  of  Grant,  and  asked  for  terms,  to  which  Grant  returned  in 
substance  —  peace  only  ! 

Everybody  was  in  the  lightest  marching  order,  and  it  was  made 
evident,  also,  that  the  Confederate  army  was  also  marching  away  — 
that  is,  crumbling  to  pieces.  Next  morning  the  end  was  reached.  It 
would  be  superfluous  to  attempt  to  describe  the  scenes  at  the  famous 
surrender.  Our  hero,  Sheridan,  barred  the  way  of  the  rebel  command. 
Lee  realized  this.  He  was  so  closely  pressed  that  he  had  sent  dupli- 
cates of  his  letter  of  surrender  to  Meade  and  Sheridan  alike,  as  well 
as  the  original  forwarded  to  Grant.  The  latter  did  not  reach  Appomat- 
tox till  i  p.  M. 

The  little  Virginian  village,  of  half  a  dozen  houses,  stands  on  some 
rising  ground.  Beyond  it  there  is  a  broad  valley  to  the  south  and  west. 
Our  cavalry  was  holding  the  high  ridge  to  the  west,  and  with  a  portion 
of  Ord's  troops,  held  the  west  and  south.  As  Grant  came  up  with  his 
staff,  Sheridan  and  Ord  were  seen  in  the  road.  As  they  met,  Grant 
said  : 

"  How  are  you,  Sheridan?" 

"  First  rate,  thank  you.     How  are  you  ? " 

His  manner  and  tone  indicated  quite  plainly  that  he  was  satisfied  at 
least  with  the  position  of  things. 

u  Is  Lee  over  there?"  asked  General  Grant. 

"  Yes  ;  he  is  in  that  brick  house,"  was  Sheridan's  reply. 

"  Well,  then,  we'll  go  over."  And  Grant  rode  on,  followed  by 
Sheridan,  Ord,  and  some  others.  Grant  went  into  the  residence  of 
Wilbur  McLean,  the  others  remaining  in  the  front  yard  for  a  while, 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN.  301 

out  of  consideration  for  Lee.  Shortly  after,  General  Grant  sent  a 
request  for  them  to  come  in.  And  in  that  room  the  terms  of  surrender 
were  signed.  Colonel  Marshall,  of  Lee's  staff',  leaned  his  back  against 
the  mantel  of  the  broad,  open  fireplace.  In  front  of  him  sat  General 
Lee.  At  the  table  fronting  him  was  General  Grant.  Back  of  the  table, 
and  leaning  against  the  wall,  were  Colonel  Babcock  and  General  Seth 
Williams,  of  the  staff'.  Near  by,  and  behind  Grant,  standing  with  his 
sheathed  sabre  resting  across  his  left  arm,  was  General  Sheridan. 
Next  to  him  were  Generals  Ingalls  and  Barnard.  Directly  behind 
Grant's  chair  stood  his  chief  of  staff",  General  Rawlins,  with  other 
members  of  the  staff"  near  by.  General  Ord  was  seated  near  the  table. 
The  others  present  were  Colonels  Badeau,  Eli  Parker,  T.  S.  Bowers, 
Frederick  T.  Dent,  and  Horace  Porter. 

Sheridan  was  as  marked  a  figure,  in  face,  pose,  expression,  dress, 
as  was  Lee  himself.  The  Confederate  commander  was  in  full  uni- 
form, with  sword  and  equipment,  all  of  which  were  nearly  or  quite 
new.  The  condition  of  General  Lee's  and  Colonel  Marshall's  clothing 
was  explained  by  the  fact  that  the  activity  of  Sheridan's  cavalry  in 
attacking  their  baggage  train  had  compelled  officers  to  select  the 
most  needed  articles  and  leave  the  rest  to  be  destroyed,  rather  than 
have  them  fall  into  our  hands.  Sheridan  had  fallen  unconsciously,  as 
the  generals  conversed,  into  a  strikingly  dramatic  attitude.  The  others 
sat  or  lounged,  with  quiet  if  intense  interest.  Sheridan's  attitude  was 
that  of  the  soldier  who  expected  to  be  called  suddenly  to  action.  It 
was  that  of  his  mood,  for  during  the  whole  marvelous  pursuit  in 
which  he  had  led  the  attack  and  the  advance  he  had  been  wrought  up 
to  the  loftiest  pitch  of  endurance,  courage,  foresight,  and  vital  move- 
ment. Indeed,  he  could  have  almost  stood  as  a  model  of  Fate,  so  alert 
and  unyielding  was  his  attitude.  Cavalry  boots,  rusty  and  soiled, 
covered  half  his  short,  sturdy  limbs.  He  wore  the  full  uniform  of  his 
rank,  with  sash,  belt,  and  sword.  His  short,  broad,  sturdy  form 
stood  posed  in  strength.  The  head  and  face  were  remarkable.  Beard- 
less, except  a  close,  dark  mustache,  its  striking  form  and  lines  were  seen 
most  clearly.  The  expression  was  that  of  set,  fixed  force  and  deter- 
mination. There  was  a  tremendous  degree  of  vitality  in  the  notable 
figure  —  a  great  amount  of  intellectual  reserve  in  the  lined  countenance. 
With  close-cropped  head  and  beardless  face,  the  depth,  height,  and 
breadth  of  the  general's  remarkable  cranium  were  felt  by  all.  The 
jaw,  strong  and  well  defined,  was  not  heavy.  There  was  not  a  gross 
line  to  be  seen.  The  arched  brows  dipped  strongly  to  the  interior, 
and  were  drawn  close  by  the  set,  stern  look  habitual  to  him  in  the 


THE  LIFE  OF 

field.  The  Irish  gray  eyes  followed  searchingly  every  facial  movement 
of  the  Confederate  leader.  That  the  Jprain  behind  that  fixed,  impassive 
sternness  was  at  work  could  be  understood  by  one  glance.  Standing 
"  at  attention,"  with  his  heavy  sheathed  cavalry  sabre  resting  on  his  left 
arm,  Sheridan  was  indeed  the  embodied  vigilance  of  the  Union  army. 

That  morning  found  ample  cause  for  vigilance.  The  bold,  ardent, 
ceaseless  pursuit  which  had  followed  Five  Forks,  and  especially 
marked  the  advance  from  Jetersville,  had  been  rewarded  by  the  secur- 
ing of  the  west  ridge  beyond  Lee's  position  and  by  the  rapid  alignment 
of  infantry  across  the  only  road  by  which  Lee  could  move.  The 
Confederates  were  enmeshed  and  knew  it.  The  work  of  disabling 
guns  and  destroying  military  property  was  going  on.  Custer  in  the 
advance  was  as  usual  aching  to  attack  and  capture  more  guns.  His 
division  secured  the  last  taken  by  actual  combat  in  Virginia.  It  was  a 
wonderfully  picturesque  sight,  for  the  topographical  features  permitted 
a  full  display  of  our  strengthening  and  encircling  lines,  as  well  as  the 
hurried  movements  of  the  gallant  enemy  within  the  fateful  circles  form- 
ing about  them.  Lieutenant-General  Gordon  with  his  corps  faced  Sheri- 
dan and  Ord,  fretting  with  the  impatience  of  valor.  It  was  his  desire 
to  cut  his  way  through,  and  the  veterans  behind  him  would  at  his  word 
have  tried  it.  Lee  knew,  however,  that  such  sacrifice  was  useless,  and 
took  pains  to  forward  to  General  Sheridan  a  copy  of  his  letter  to  Grant, 
calling  for  a  conference  to  arrange  the  terms  of  surrender.  Sheridan 
received  this  at  least  an  hour  before  Grant  did,  with  information,  also,  of 
the  short  truce  allowed  by  Meade,  whose  army  was  steadily  pressed 
to  its  position.  Sheridan  at  once  rode  down  to  meet  Gordon,  accom- 
panied by  Custer,  Merritt,  Deven,  and  others. 

How  the  news  was  received  can  be  faintly  seen  by  the  following 
incident :  Captain  A.  J.  Ricks,  of  Major-General  J.  D.  Cox's  stafT, 
was  with  that  officer  when  the  dispatch  announcing  Lee's  surrender 
was  read.  The  cheering  frightened  his  horse,  which  dashed  off  at  full 
speed,  heading  to  an  approaching  column  of  the  army.  The  thought 
flashed  through  the  rider's  mind  that  this  was  an  opportunity  to  carry 
the  news  through  the  whole  army,  so  giving  free  rein  to  the  excited 
horse,  he  rode  on.  The  battalions  opened  for  the  horse  and  rider,  and 
he  shouted  out  the  news  as  he  sped  onward.  Captain  Ricks  narrates : 
"  In  one  of  the  regiments,  as  I  was  sweeping  through  the  ranks,  I 
caught  the  bright  face  of  a  soldier  leaning  out  from  the  lines  as  far  as 
possible  into  the  road,  to  catch  the  message  that  fell  from  my  lips. 
'What  is  it?  What  is  it?'  he  anxiously  shouted.  'Lee  has  sur- 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

rendered  his  whole  army  to  Grant,'  was  the  reply.  Clear  and  loud, 
above  all  the  voices,  and  quick  as  the  message  fell  upon  his  ear,  was 
his  answer  :  i  Great  God  !  you're  the  man  I've  been  looking  for  for  the 
last  four  years.' ' 

A  little  incident  occurred  which  deserves  mention,  and  it  is  given 
here  in  the  words  of  General  Horace  Porter.  After  the  formal  terms 
of  surrender  were  signed,  and  the  staff  of  General  Grant  had  been  intro- 
duced, General  Lee  took  the  initiative  in  bringing  the  conference  to 
business  again,  and  said  : 

"  '  I  have  a  thousand  or  more  of  your  men  as  prisoners,  General 
Grant,  a  number  of  them  officers,  whom  we  have  required  to  march 
along  with  us  for  several  days.  I  shall  be  glad  to  send  them  into  your 
lines  as  soon  as  it  can  be  arranged,  for  I  have  no  provisions  for  them. 
I  have,  indeed,  nothing  for  my  own  men.  They  have  been  living  for 
the  last  few  days  principally  upon  parched  corn,  and  we  are  badly  in 
need  of  both  rations  and  forage.  I  telegraphed  to  Lynchburg,  directing 
several  train  loads  of  rations  to  be  sent  on  by  rail  from  there,  and  when 
they  arrive  I  should  be  glad  to  have  the  present  wants  of  my  men  sup- 
plied from  them.' 

"At  this  remark,  all  eyes  turned  towards  Sheridan,  for  he  had 
captured  these  trains  with  his  cavalry  the  night  before,  near  Appomattox 
Station." 

The  incident  shows  how  complete  was  the  Union  environment,  and 
how  hopeless  would  have  been  any  further  struggle  on  the  part  of  the 
Army  of  Northern  Virginia.  It  is  another  evidence  of  Sheridan's 
ubiquity.  The  cavalry  was  always  there  —  wherever  that  might  be. 

Sheridan  shared  with  the  other  officers,  after  Lee  had  ridden  away, 
the  desire  to  secure  some  relic  of  the  memorable  occasion  in  which  he 
had  been  so  stalwart  an  actor.  But  his  desire  took  a  generous  turn, 
for  paying  McLean  twenty  dollars  in  gold  for  the  little  table  on  which 
Lee  had  signed  the  terms  of  surrender,  he  at  once  made  a  present  of  it 
to  Mrs.  Custer  —  through  her  husband.  Porter  says  that  Custer 
"  started  off  to  camp  bearing  it  upon  his  shoulder,  and  looking  like 
Atlas  carrying  the  world."  And  for  the  time  being  they  were —  these 
men  of  high  valor —  "  carrying  the  world  "  on  their  shoulders.  It  was 
a  memorable  event.  The  accessories  were  simple  enough,  as  always 
on  really  great  occasions.  But  no  field  in  human  history  has  held 
higher  hopes,  and  none  have  ever  witnessed  a  larger  magnanimity,  a 
grander  generosity. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 


THE  CONFEDERATE  CAVALRYMEN. 


THE  SOUTHERN  ADVANTAGE  AT  FIRST  —  CAVALRY  OFFICERS  MAKING  FINE 
COMMANDERS — PLANTER  AND  FARMER  FINDING  THEIR  HORSES  AS  TROOP- 
ERS —  THE  WADE  HAMPTON  AND  ASHBY  LEGIONS  —  THE  LEES  —  HOW 
GENERAL  LEE  LEFT  THE  UNION  SERVICE  —  "JEB"  STUART  THEIR  BEST 
COMMANDER  —  SOUTHWESTERN  LEADERS  ALSO  —  ROSSER — MOSEBY —  WHAT 
GRANT  SAID  OF  THE  VIRGINIAN  PARTISAN  —  HIS  SERVICES  TO  THE  CON- 
FEDERACY—  WHAT  LEE  SAID  OF  HIS  USEFULNESS —  THE  "  BOYS  "  ARE 
MARCHING  HOME  AGAIN—  NOT  ALL  OF  THEM. 

THE  cavalry  of  the  Confeder- 
acy was  a  famous  and  terrible 
weapon  in  the  hands  of  its  lead- 
ers for  more  than  the  first  half 
of  the  war  period.  The  con- 
tempt of  our  organizers  for  this 
arm  of  the  service  brought  to  the 
people  who  deserved  it  not,  a 
good  deal  of  severe  punishment. 
It  is  recalled  as  an  illustration 
of  how  little  men,  set  in  their 
ways,  can  unlearn,  even  by  expe- 
rience, that  as  late  as  the  fall  of 
1864,  and  during  the  rapid  retreat  from  Missouri  of  General  Sterling 
Price  and  his  army,  mostly  mounted,  that  Rosecrans,  commanding  the 
Department  of  Missouri,  coming  up  on  the  tail  of  the  pursuit,  sneered 
audibly  at  General  Curtis,  commanding  the  Department  of  Kansas, 
for  pressing  the  enemy  with  the  mounted  forces  under  his  control, 
which  comprised  only  about  half  his  command,  and  was  much  less  in 
numbers  than  Price's  beaten  army.  General  Rosecrans  remarked  to 
the  officer  in  command  of  an  engineer  party,  that  Curtis  "  could  not 
keep  it  up."  Our  marches  were  then  some  thirty  miles  a  day  when 
not  fighting.  "You'll  see;  I'll  have  to  come  up  at  last  with  my 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

infantry."  As  a  matter  of  fact,  in  that  pursuit  "  Rosy's"  infantry  never 
got  within  fifty  miles  of  a  battle-field,  and  Price  was  three  times  routed, 
and  driven  finally  across  the  Arkansas  River,  200  miles  below  where 
the  infantry  was  to  "  come  up,"  if  at  all. 

The  Southern  leaders,  certainly  at  first,  understood  the  logistics  of 
the  situation  better  than  our  own  authorities.  One  reason  of  that  is  per- 
haps to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  so  many  of  the  Confederate  command- 
ers—  those  from  the  regular  service  especially  —  had  been  in  the 
cavalry  service.  Jefferson  Davis  himself  evidently  appreciated  this 
arm,  as  he  took  especial  pains  while  Secretary  of  War,  under  Pierce, 
in  organizing  four  additional  regiments  to  the  regular  army,  to  procure 
the  legislation  necessary  to  equip  them  as  cavalry,  and  then  to  officer 
them  with  those  who,  it  seemed  to  him,  would  best  serve  the  South  in 
the  contingencies  that  were  likely  to  arise.  The  ex-cavalrymen  among 
commanding  and  leading  generals  of  the  Confederacy,  can  be  named 
by  the  score. 

It  was  in  the  eastern  division  of  our  vast  field  of  war  that  the 
cavalry  service  was  after  all  brought  to  its  highest  perfection.  And 
it  was  in  that  field,  also,  that  the  Confederacy  aggregated  of  necessity 
some  of  its  most  useful  cavalry  commanders.  It  had  the  advantage  in 
some  degree  of  securing  there  the  most  experienced  of  the  old  army 
dragoons.  Lee  himself,  J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  Fitzhugh  Lee,  Ewell,  Hill, 
Anderson,  Sibley,  Joseph  E.Johnston,  Steele,  Hood,  Jordan,  Albert 
Sidney  Johnston,  and  a  hundred  others  who  could  be  named,  might 
be  properly  selected  from  our  ante  bellum  army  as  the  fittest  men 
to  organize  a  cavalry  force.  The  Confederates  were  not,  also,  with- 
out most  gallant  cavalry  soldiers  and  leaders  whose  sabres  carved  their 
way  from  civil  life  to  martial  eminence.  Among  those  still  living  are 
such  men  as  Wade  Hampton,  Wheeler,  Chalmers,  and  Moseby.  Gen- 
eral Gordon  himself  has  shown  all  the  finest  qualities  of  a  cavalry  com- 
mander. Of  those  who  have  passed  away  may  be  named  with  respect 
for  soldierly  qualities  at  least,  Stuart,  Forrest,  Cleburne,  Wickham, 
Gilmore,  Ashby,  Van  Dorn,  Ben.  McCullough,  and  many  others. 

Still,  as  at  first  in  our  own  army,  the  engineer  officers,  like  Beaure- 
gard,  were  made  prominent.  The  exigencies  of  field  service,  however, 
soon  put  the  trained  cavalry  commanders  to  the  fore.  The  excellence 
of  our  West  Point  training  was  well  illustrated  there,  in  that  it  showed 
how  easily  its  graduates  could  pass  from  one  arm  of  the  service  to 
another,  especially  in  the  three  active  ones  —  infantry,  cavalry,  and 
artillery. 
30 


THE  LIFE  OF 


The  planter  was  necessarily  a  horseman.  His  work  of  supervision 
in  the  main  was  done  in  the  saddle.  ».&$  a  slave-holder,  owning  many 
or  few  human  chattels,  he  was  more  of  a  man  on  the  back  of  his  saddle- 
horse  in  the  eyes  of  his  slaves,  than  when  on  foot  like  any  ordinary 
person.  He  knew  how  to  both  ride  and  shoot.  He  was  master,  too, 
in  more  senses  than  one.  Besides,  this  was  the  slave-holders'  war,  and 
there  were  barely  more  than  sufficient  of  their  class  to  hold  the  offices 
and  commissions  incidental  to  a  great  war.  It  cannot  be  denied,  either, 
that  in  the  South  the  men  whose  teachings  were  directed  to  secession 
were  among  the  first  to  volunteer  for  the  fight  that  ensued. 

\Vhat  gave  the  Confederate  cavalry,  then,  its  first  form  and  useful- 
ness was  the  rule  adopted  of  requiring  each  recruit  to  mount  himself. 
Equipments  were  sometimes  or  in  part  provided,  sufficient  to  give  some 
uniformity.  The  munificent  sum  of  forty  cents  per  day  was  allowed 
each  trooper  for  the  use  of  his  horse.  He  was  required,  however,  to 
remount  himself.  The  endeavor  to  achieve  this  necessity  was  the 
source  of  much  of  the  activity  shown  by  Moseby,  Morgan,  Duke,  and 
other  partisan  leaders,  in  different  parts  of  the  large  field  of  border 
operations.  Such  a  condition  applied  to  the  raising  of  cavalry  could 
only  be  made  in  an  agricultural  country.  It  was  at  first  peculiarly 
adapted  to  the  conditions  of  the  South.  The  rich  slave-holding  planters, 
like  Wade  Hampton  ;  the  ambitious  and  dashing  leaders,  like  Wheeler 
and  Chalmers,  then  lawyers  and  planters  with  careers  before  them  ;  the 
born  horsemen  like  Forrest,  Morgan,  Moseby,  the  Ashbys,  and  others, 
were  able  to  bring  together  a  mounted  yeomanry,  accustomed  to  their 
horses,  and  used,  in  the  rude  atmosphere  of  slavery,  to  command. 
The  early  usefulness  of  the  Confederate  cavalry  was  due  not  alone  to 
the  character  of  the  men  who,  by  reason  of  the  rule  requiring  them  to 
furnish  their  own  horses,  enlisted  in  the  service,  but  to  the  fact  that  the 
South  had  up  to  the  Civil  War,  paid  more  attention  than  the  North 
did  to  the  breeding  and  training  of  fine  saddle-horses.  Besides  that 
was  the  fact  that  the  Southern  trooper  almost  necessarily  knew  the 
country  in  which  he  was  operating.  Probably,  also,  two-fifths  of  the 
male  effectives  of  the  Confederate  States  were  constant  riders,  owned 
their  own  stock,  or  were  so  related  as  to  be  able  to  procure  their  mount. 
Yet,  as  it  turned  out,  given  time  and  occasion,  the  loyal  states  were 
able,  in  the  long  run,  to  mould  and  make  a  better  cavalry  force,  to 
mount  it  far  more  effectively,  and  handle  it  more  efficiently  for  final 
victory. 

Wade  Hampton,  of  South  Carolina  —  one  of  the  richest  planters  in 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  $07 

the  whole  South,  of  revolutionary  family,  of  high  education  and  fine 
talents  —  was  foremost  in  raising  these  troops.  At  the  first  Bull  Run 
battle,  Hampton's  Legion  was  among  the  most  notable  of  Confederate 
commands.  With  Ashby  and  the  Virginian's  "  Black  Horse"  troop, 
the  imaginations  of  our  disordered  and  retreating  soldiery  were  at  that 
period  most  vividly  filled.  Hampton,  shortly  after  the  death  of  Stuart 
at  Yellow  Tavern,  was  made  a  lieutenant-general,  and  placed  in  com- 
mand of  Lee's  cavalry.  He  possessed  many  of  the  qualities  of  a  fine 
commander.  He  was  cool  in  action,  knew  all  about  horses,  had  a  way 
of  winning  his  men,  though  without  the  hearty  rollicksomeness  of 
Stuart,  or  the  headlong  dash  of  Custer,  while  he  was  as  remarkable  as 
Sheridan  in  gathering  accurate  ideas  of  the  topography  through  which 
he  was  moving.  If  he  lacked  anywhere,  it  was  in  a  sort  of  immo- 
bility that  prevented  as  much  dash  as  cavalry  demands. 

The  Lees  all  appear  to  have  become  troopers,  as  if  born  to  the 
saddle.  "  Fitz-Hugh,"  u  Fitz-Lee,"  and  "Rooney"were  far  more 
than  ordinary  horsemen  and  commanders.  It  was  doubtless  natural 
that  this  should  be  so,  for  their  famous  commander,  and  the  head  of 
their  house,  also,  was  himself  a  trained  and  thoroughly  competent 
cavalry  commander.  At  the  time  of  his  entrance  into  the  Confederate 
service  he  was  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  Second  Regiment  of  United 
States  Cavalry.  His  headquarters  were  in  the  Indian  Territory,  within 
the  western  part  of  the  Chickasaw  country^probably  at  what  is  now 
known  as  Fort  Sill,  and  were,  fortunately  for  the  Union  cause,  under 
command  of  Major  George  H.  Thomas,  the  noble  Virginian  soldier 
who  did  so  much  to  honor  his  name  by  great  service  in  the  field  to  the 
Union  cause.  Albert  Sidney  Johnston,  who  fell  at  Shiloh,  command- 
ing on  the  Confederate  side,  was  its  colonel.  Lee  was  in  Texas,  en 
route  to  Washington,  when  Major-General  Twiggs,  United  States 
Army,  commanding  that  department,  surrendered  his  command  to  the 
secession  authorities  of  the  Lone  Star  State.  It  is  recorded  that  Lee  then 
declared  that  he  should  resign  on  arriving  home,  and  retire  to  his  farm 
at  Arlington,  taking  no  part  in  the  conflict  on  either  side.  This  was  in 
December,  1860.  He  left  San  Antonio  in  January,  1861,  to  return  to 
Washington,  and  was  on  duty  with  General  Scott  until  after  Mr.  Lin- 
coln was  inaugurated.  The  governor  of  Virginia  had  raised  a  so-called 
state  army  of  20,000  men,  the  command  of  which  was  tendered  to  Lee. 
He  was  also  offered  the  position  of  senior  major-general  in  the  Union 
Army  and  with  it  the  command  of  all  the  troops.  He  dallied  with  both 
offers,  not  idly,  it  is  certain,  but  in  the  grave  agony  and  doubt  of  a 


^08  THE  LIFE  OF. 

strong  man  who  thought  he  saw  before  him  the  parting  ways  of  a 
divided  duty.  He  chose  to  go  with  Jiis^  state,  and  his  resignation  was 
offered  on  the  2oth  of  April,  1861.  On  the  22d  instant,  at  Arling- 
ton, Lee  received  commissioners  from  the  State  Constitutional  Conven- 
tion, then  in  session  at  Richmond,  and  in  its  name  and  that  of  Gov- 
ernorfLetcher,  was  offered  the  command  of  the  state  troops, with  the  rank 
of  major-general.  Having  accepted  this  offer,  that  evening  Lee  left  for 
Richmond  with  his  family.  On  the  23d,  he  was  received  by  the  state 
convention.  Up  to  that  date  Virginia  had  not  actually  seceded.  It  is 
properly  claimed  by  Union  writers  and  critics  that  Lee's  action  did 
very  much  to  put  the  state  into  actual  rebellion.  No  Federal  force  of 
any  kind  had  entered  the  Old  Dominion  during  the  controversy.  Not 
until  it  was  actually  known  at  army  headquarters  that  Colonel  Lee  had 
not  waited  for  the  formal  acceptance  of  his  resignation  before  entering 
an  hostile  army  was  there  any  movement  made  in  the  direction  of  his 
arrest.  It  has  been  charged  that  technically  General  Lee  was  a  deserter, 
as  an  officer  who  offers  his  resignation  is  presumed  to  be  still  in  the 
army,  but  under  waiting  orders.  However  that  may  be,  General  Lee 
•was  the  hero  of  the  Confederate  Army.  History  has  managed,  by  reason 
of  his  strong,  rounded  character,  dignity,  and  personality,  to  impress 
him  in  a  remarkable  degree  upon  the  burning  pages  of  that  period. 
In  an  interesting  after-the-war  volume,*  a  Southern  writer  describes  Lee, 
as  he  appeared  in  the  Peninsula  Campaign.  It  was  just  before  the 
battle  of  Gaines  Mills.  His  headquarters  were  at  Hogan's  house, 
six  and  one-half  miles  to  the  northeast  of  Richmond.  It  had  been  used 
by  our  commanders,  but  as  they  retreated,  Lee,  with  Longstreet,  used  it 
as  a  post  of  observation.  It  also  bore  the  evidences  of  hospital  use. 
General  Lee,  says  the  writer  quoted,  "  sat  in  the  south  portico,  absorbed 
in  thought.  Dressed  in  a  dark  uniform,  buttoned  to  the  throat,  his 
calm,  open  countenance  and  gray  hair  would  have  tempted  an  artist  to 
sketch  him  in  this  thoughtful  attitude.  Longstreet  sat  in  an  old  garden 
chair,  at  the  foot  of  the  steps.  With  his  feet  thrown  against  a  tree,  he 
presented  a  true  type  of  the  hardy  campaigner ;  his  once  gray  uniform 
had  changed  to  brown,  and  many  a  button  was  missing  ;  his  riding-boots 
were  dusty  and  worn  ;  but  his  pistols  and  sabre  had  a  bright  polish,  by 
hie  side,  while  his  charger  stood  near,  anxiously  looking  for  orders  or 
recognition."  An  English  officer  who  was  visiting  the  Confederate 
army,  described  General  Lee  as  "  almost  without  exception  one  of 

»  Southern  Generals,  William  Parker  Snow,  p.  61. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  309 

the  handsomest  of  men."  At  that  time  he  "  was  fifty-six  years  old, 
tall,  broad  shouldered,  very  well  made,  well  set  up  —  a  thorough 
soldier  in  appearance  —  with  manners  most  courteous  and  full  of 
dignity."  His  costume,  according  to  the  same  authority,  was  "  a  well- 
worn,  long  gray  jacket,  a  high,  black  felt  hat,"  and  with  his  trousers 
"  tucked  into  his  Wellington  boots."  These  realistic  touches  bring  the 
man  home  to  us.  It  is  not  a  matter  to  wonder  at,  then,  that  the  Confed- 
erate cavalry  service  received  his  watchful  care.  The  estimation  in 
which  Stuart  —  selected  by  Lee  to  command  his  cavalry  —  was  held,  is 
stated  by  General  Longstreet,  who  in  a  Century  article  —  "  Our  march 
Against  Pope  " —  writes  that  "  '  Jeb'  Stuart  was  a  very  daring  fellow  and 
the  best  cavalryman  America  ever  produced.  At  the  second  Manassas, 
soon  after  we  heard  of  the  advance  of  McDowell  and  Porter,  Stuart 
came  up  and  made  a  report  to  General  Lee.  When  he  had  done  so 
General  Lee  said  he  had  no  orders  at  that  moment,  but  he  requested 
Stuart  to  wait  awhile.  Thereupon  he  turned  in  his  tracks,  lay  down 
on  the  ground,  put  a  stone  under  his  head,  and  instantly  fell  asleep. 
General  Lee  rode  away,  and  in  an  hour  returned.  Stuart  was  still  sleep- 
ing. Lee  asked  for  him,  and  Stuart  sprang  to  his  feet  and  said  :  '  Here 
I  am,  general.' 

"  General  Lee  replied  :  '  I  want  you  to  send  a  message  to  your  troops 
on  the  left  to  send  a  few  more  cavalry  over  to  the  right.' 

"  '  I  would  better  go  myself,'  said  Stuart,  and  with  that  he  swung 
himself  into  the  saddle  and  rode  off  at  a  rapid  gallop,  singing  as  loud 
as  he  could,  '  Jine  the  Cavalry.' " 

To  the  gallant  Stuart — whom  we  may  admire  as  a  soldier,  without 
accepting  Longstfeet's  eulogy  of  him  —  is  due  the  credit  of  inaugurating 
the  first  extensive  raiding  expedition  of  the  war.  The  daring  and 
dashing  raid  made  by  his  command  around  McClellan's  army  after  the 
battle  of  Seven  Pines,  must  take  rank  as  the  initiative  of  similar  bold 
operations  that  followed  rapidly  on  both  sides.  "  Boots  and  saddles," 
was  sounded,  says  Colonel  W.  T.  Robins,*  amid  the  delight  of  the  men 
and  officers.  Nominally,  the  command  started  for  Northern  Virginia, 
but  in  reality,  they  were  to  flank  the  right  wing  of  the  Federal  army 
near  Ashland,  and  moving  around  its  rear,  cross  the  Chickahominy  at 
near  Sycamore  Ford,  in  New  Kent  County,  march  to  the  James  River, 
and  return  to  Lee's  army,  near  Deep  Bottom,  Henrico  County — ground 
which  was  afterwards  marked  by  the  dashing  raids  of  Kilpatrick,  and 
later  by  the  more  seriously  destructive  ones  of  Sheridan. 


Battles  and  Leaders  of  the  Civil  War,  Century  Company,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  271--^. 


jio  THE  LIFE  OF 

This  expedition  displayed  StuajJt's  capacity  for  surprise  in  an 
admirable  manner.  Fires  were  not  allowed  at  bivouacs  ;  the  bugles 
were  unused ;  the  marches  were  begun  early  and  made  swiftly. 
Hanover  Court  House  saw  the  first  Union  troopers  —  a  small  detach- 
ment which  left  incontinently.  A  fight  occurred  at  Hawes'  shop,  where 
subsequently  Custer's  command  had  a  brilliant  rencontre  and  won  a 
victory.  The  Union  squadron  was  swiftly  repulsed  by  a  charge  of 
Colonel  W.  H.  F.  Lee's  regiment.  They  fell  back  swiftly  on  their 
main  body,  commanded  by  Brigadier-General  Philip  St.  George  Cooke, 
the  father-in-law  of  Stuart,  and  himself  a  loyal  Virginian.  The  fight 
was  a  sharp  one,  the  pursuit  was  hot,  and  the  conflict  was  again  renewed 
at  Old  Church,  where  the  Nationals  had  encamped.  It  all  resulted  in 
a  Confederate  victory.  Stuart  pushed  on.  McClellan's  army  was 
between  him  and  Richmond.  The  Union  cavalry  was  believed  to  be 
in  Stuart's  rear.  Very  little  fighting  occurred.  An  attempt  was  made 
at  the  York  River  railroad  (in  McClellan's  possession),  near  Funstall's 
Station,  to  capture  a  train  of  troops.  The  engineer  put  on  steam  and 
broke  through  the  obstructions,  while  the  Confederates  fired  into  the  cars, 
wounding  and  killing  a  number  of  our  men.  In  general,  the  raid  was 
a  huge  picnic,  during  which  Stuart's  troopers  secured  many  horses, 
arms,  especially  revolvers,  raided  several  sutler  stores,  and  got  an  unusual 
number,  for  them,  of  good  things  to  eat.  In  their  whole  excursion  they 
lost  one  man  killed,  several  wounded,  and  no  prisoners.  General  Stuart 
reported  the  capture  of  165  prisoners,  260  horses  and  mules,  and  a 
quantity  of  small  arms.  It  reads  small  by  the  side  of  the  larger  opera- 
tions that  marked  Sheridan's  movements  in  the  last  year  of  the  war, 
but  it  was  a  fortunate  movement  on  the  Confederates'  part,  and  inspired 
their  troopers  with  greater  dash  and  self-reliance.  In  the  Central 
South,  however,  men  like  Wheeler,  Cheatham,  Chalmers,  Forrest, 
and  Morgan,  had  already  taught  the  Union  commanders  the  power 
of  the  mounted  soldier.  No  such  cavalry  forces  had  been  raised  in 
Virginia  as,  under  Forrest  and  Wheeler,  were  then  and  later  assailing 
Halleck's  lines  of  operations,  or  the  movements  of  Buell  and  Rosecrans. 
It  was  in  the  Central  South  and  west  of  the  Mississippi  that  the 
Confederates  made  their  most  extensive  and  important  use  of  cavalry. 
Neither  Stuart  nor  Wade  Hampton  ever  commanded  over  ten  thousand 
cavalrymen,  Generals  Forrest  and  Wheeler  during  several  periods  of 
their  active  campaigning,  had  larger  forces.  Morgan  and  Duke  were  as 
much  partisan  leaders  as  Moseby,  yet  the  latter  seldom  had  over  twenty 
men  with  him,  and  probably  never  commanded  over  one  hundred 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN. 


troopers  in  any  one 
engagement  or 
raid.  The  topo- 
graphical features 
of  the  different 
fields  made  neces- 
sary the  differences 
of  the  commands. 
General  Stuart 
showed  confidence 
in  the  material  he 
handled  by  discard- 
ing,  ex-regular 
though  he  was,  the 
traditions  of  the 
United  States  Ar- 
my, which  held 
that  it  took  three 
years  of  service  to 
make  an  effective 
cavalryman  out  of 
a  raw  recruit.  The 
Union  cavalry  in 
the  Peninsula  Cam- 


GEN.  WADE  HAMPTON, 


paign. 


from 


and        A  FAMOUS  CONFEDERATE  CAVALRY  OFFICER.     SINCE  THE  WAR  A 

UNITED  STATES  SENATOR  FROM  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 


around  whom  he 
seemed  to  so  easily  run,  as  well  as  fight,  consisted  of  fourteen  regiments 
and  two  independent  squadrons.  Major-General  George  A.  Stone- 
man,  recently  governor  of  California,  was  in  command,  with  Briga- 
dier-General Cooke  in  command  of  the  reserve.  Colonels  Emory  and 
Grier  ("  old  Billy,"  of  the  regulars,  as  he  was  called)  were  among  the 
efficient,  with  Averill,  Torbett,  and  others,  moulders  and  commanders 
of  the  cavalry  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac.  Custer  was  a  staff' officer 
with  McClellan.  Kilpatrick  was  then  a  major.  Buforcl  was  on  Stone- 
man's  staff;  and  the  names  of  our  other  gallant  heroes  were,  like  the 
better  known  Confederate  cavalrymen,  just  beginning  to  be  "  sounded 
in  the  ear  of  fame."  Averill  had  preceded  Stuart's  exploit  of  riding 
round  the  peninsula  army  by  a  raid,  on  a  smaller  scale,  from  Manassas 
to  Fredericksburg.  It  was  the  peninsula  fighting  that  made  the  Union 
cavalry  effective,  just  as  it  also  inspired  that  of  the  Army  of  Virginia. 


)i2  THE  LIFE  OF 

"  Jeb"  Stuart,  judging  by  the  anecdotes  told  of  him,  was  the  un- 
questioned idol  of  the  Virginian"  'cavalry.  The  ex-partisan  leader, 
Moseby,  in  the  charming  little  book  of  Reminiscences,*  thus  sketches 
Stuart,  with  whom  he  first  enlisted  in  the  First  Virginia  Cavalry,  as 
follows  : 

"  He  was  just  twenty-eight  years  of  age  —  one  year  older  than  rny- 
self — strongly  built,  with  blue  eyes,  ruddy  complexion,  and  reddish 
beard.  He  wore  a  blouse  and  foraging  cap  with  a  linen  cover,  called 
a  havelock,  as  a  protection  against  the  sun.  His  personal  appearance 
indicated  the  distinguishing  traits  of  his  character  —  dash,  great 
strength  of  will,  and  indomitable  energy.  Stuart  soon  showed  that  he 
possessed  all  the  qualities  of  a  great  leader  of  cavalry  —  a  sound  judg- 
ment, a  quick  intelligence  to  penetrate  the  designs  of  an  enemy, 
mingled  with  the  brilliant  courage  of  a  Rupert.  His  good  humor, 
readiness,  and  courtesy  seem  to  have  been  unfailing  qualities.  It  is 
told  that  during  the  week  of  battles  in  front  of  Washington,  following 
the  second  Bull  Run,  that  General  Bayard  went  forward,  under  a 
flag  of  truce,  to  meet  and  confer  with  his  old  comrade  in  arms.  Less 
than  two  years  previously  '  Jeb '  was  first  lieutenant  and  Bayard 
second  lieutenant  in  the  same  company  ;  now  '  Jeb  '  was  a  major-gen- 
eral on  the  wrong  side,  and  Bayard  a  brigadier  on  the  right  one. 
During  the  interview  a  wounded  soldier  lying  near  was  groaning  and 
asking  for  water. 

41  '  Here,  ujeb,"  '  said  Bayard  —  old-time  recollections  making  him 
familiar  —  as  he  tossed  his  bridle  to  a  Confederate  officer,  l  hold  my 
horse  a  minute  while  I  fetch  that  poor  fellow  some  water.'  4  Jeb ' 
held  the  bridle.  Bayard  went  to  a  stream  and  brought  the  wounded 
man  some  water.  As  Bayard  mounted  his  horse,  '  Jeb '  remarked 
that  he  had  not  for  some  time  '  played  orderly  to  a  Union  general/ 
Poor  Bayard  went  gallantly  to  his  grave  some  time  before  his  friend  did, 
but  Stuart  also  fell  at  Yellow  Tavern.  Another  little  episode  is  told 
pending  the  Cedar  Run  field,  in  1862.  An  eye-witness  says  :  '  On  a 
fallen  gum  tree  —  the  slain  stretched  around  them  —  sat  the  officers  of 
the  parley  ;  upon  one  side  the  Confederate  cavalry  leaders,  Stuart  and 
General  Early  ;  upon  the  other  Generals  HartsufFand  Roberts.  Stuart 
was  lythe,  gray-eyed,  and  tall,  of  an  intense  countenance,  nervous,  im- 
pulsive manner,  and  clad  in  gray,  with  a  soft  black  hat.  He  wore, 
curiously  enough,  United  States  buttons,  and  his  sword  which  he 


*Moseby's    \Var  Reminiscences,  pp 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  jij 

exhibited,  was  made  in  Philadelphia.  Early  was  a  quiet,  severe  North 
Carolinian,  who  wore  a  home-spun  civil  suit,  with  a  brigadier's  star  on 
his  shoulder  bar.  General  Hartsuff  was  burly  and  good-natured ; 
Roberts  silent  and  sage,  with  white  beard  and  distrustful  eye.  The 
former  had  been  a  classmate  of  the  cavalryman,  and  he  said,  '  Stuart, 
old  boy,  how  d'ye  do?'  '  God  bless  my  soul,  Hartsuff,'  said  the  other, 
4  it  warms  my  heart  to  see  you,'  and  they  took  a  turn  arm-in-arm." 

Stuart's  earlier  rival  in  the  affections  of  the  Virginia  troopers  was 
the  farmer-soldier  of  Loudoun  County,  Colonel  Turner  Ashby,  who  at 
his  own  cost  recruited  an  independent  command  at  the  very  outset  of 
the  Civil  War.  There  was  a  good  deal  of  feeling  displayed,  when,  the 
organization  of  cavalry  commencing  in  earnest,  Captain  Ji  E.  B. 
Stuart,  formerly  of  the  old  regular  army,  was  made  colonel  over  the 
head,  as  it  were,  of  Turner  Ashby,  who  was  then,  as  General  Imboden 
has  since  written,  "  the  idol  of  all  the  troopers  in  the  field,  as  well  he 
might  be,  for  a  more  brave  and  chivalrous  officer  never  rode  at  the 
head  of  well-mounted  troopers."  He  was,  however,  soon  placed  in 
command  of  a  regiment  of  his  own  people,  and  maintained  his  repu- 
tation for  bravery  and  dash  on  the  field  until  he  fell  in  one  of  the 
cavalry  skirmishes  that  preceded  the  battle  of  Winchester  in  1864. 

General  Jackson,  a  prominent  ex-Confederate  officer,  says  that : 
"  As  a  partisan  officer  I  never  knew  his  superior ;  his  daring  was 
proverbial ;  his  powers  of  endurance  almost  incredible  ;  his  tone  of 
character  heroic,  and  his  sagacity  almost  intuitive  in  divining  the  pur- 
pose and  movements  of  the  enemy." 

Strong  praise,  but  characteristic  of  the  Southern  judgment  which 
made  of  every  fighter  an  Hector,  and  of  every  leader  an  Achilles. 
Another  of  the  competent,  but  still  over- rated  men  of  "brawn  and 
pluck"  who  served  their  cause,  is  the  ex-cavalry  commander,  Thomas 
L.  Rosser,  who  failed  to  thrash  Custer  as  he  promised,  and  almost  pur- 
sued Sheridan  even  to  the  grave.  There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that 
Rosser  was  a  brave  and  dashing  cavalry  leader,  even  if  a  bit  of  a 
braggart.  There  is  a  little  story  told  in  Blue  and  Gray,  which  illus- 
trates him,  and  will  bear  repeating.  During  the  last  campaign,  Rosser, 
in  a  fight  with  a  portion  of  Crook's  cavalry  division  sent  to  destroy  the 
high  bridge  near  Farmville,  captured  some  eight  hundred  prison- 
ers. The  narrator  of  the  incident  says,  hearing  a  voice  asking  for 
General  Longstreet,  that  he  turned  in  his  saddle  to  find  General  Rosser 
near  by,  mounted  on  a  superb  black  horse.  Inquiring  the  news,  he 
replied:  "Oh!  we  have  captured  those  people  who  were  going  to 


314  THE  LIFE  OF 

destroy  the  bridge  —  took  them  all  in;  but  Jim  Dearing  is  mortally 
wounded.  He  had  a  hand-to-haix!  f%ht  with  the  commanding  officer 
of  the  Federals,  General  Read,  and  cut  him  down  from  his  horse, 
killing  him  ;  but  Read's  orderly  shot  Dearing  through  the  body,  and 
then  he,  too,  was  shot.  It  was  a  gallant  fight.  This  is  Read's  horse, 
2i.nA.this  his  sabre.  Both  beauties,  aren't  they?  But  I  must  see  Long- 
street."  Rosser  was  wounded  in  the  arm,  but  made  light  of  his 
u  scratch."  Longstreet  hunted  up,  Rosser  reported.  There  was  evi- 
dently more  gratification  at  the  captures  he  made,  than  pain  or  surprise 
at  the  terrible  position  in  which  the  army  he  belonged  to  was  placed. 

It  is  not  unrefreshing  to  read  over  the  old  rosters, —  so  many  names 
and  memories  are  brought  to  light  again.  In  the  Army  of  Virginia 
cavalry  there  are  embalmed  some  names  that  have  grown  somewhat 
since  those  days.  At  a  glance  the  eye  recalls  Hampton  and  Butler, 
both  in  the  United  States  Senate  ;  Fitzhugh  Lee,  Governor  of  Vir- 
ginia ;  Percy  M.  B.  Young,  of  Georgia ;  ex-Congressman  Magruder, 
relative  of  the  dashing  and  emblazoned  artillerist,  who  surrendered  in 
Texas  as  major-general ;  Wickham,  ex-Senator  from  Virginia  ;  Thomas 
F.  Goode,  brother  of  the  Congressman ;  Brigadier-General  W.  E. 
Jones,  formerly  of  the  regular  army ;  Imboden,  dashing  and  able, 
whpse  virile  pen  is  still  giving  the  country  some  valuable  papers  on  the 
Civil  War.  But  one  of  the  most  remarkable  of  Confederate  cavalrymen 
is  never  named  in  these  rosters.  Yet  he  held,  having  won  it  fairly, 
the  commission  of  colonel.  John  L.  Moseby,  the  partisan  leader  of 
Northern  Virginia,  deserves  a  place  in  any  reference  to  the  doings  and 
deeds  of  the  Confederate  troopers.  He  deserves  it  because  he  is  a  man 
of  character  enough  to  win  the  respect  of  his  foe,  and  since  the  war 
closed  to  have  induced  General  Grant  to  write  of  him  as  follows,  after 
having  appointed  him  consul  to  Hong  Kong  :  u  Since  the  close  of  the 
war  I  have  come  to  know  Moseby  personally,  and  somewhat  intimately. 
He  is  a  different  man  entirely  from,  what  I  supposed.  He  is  slender, 
not  tall,  wiry,  and  looks  as  if  he  could  endure  any  amount  of  physical 
exercise.  He  is  able,  and  thoroughly  honest  and  truthful.  There  were 
probably  but  few  men  in  J|he  South  who  could  have  commanded  suc- 
cessfully a  separate  detachment  in  the  rear  of  an  opposing  army,  and 
so  near  the  borders  of  hostilities,  as  long  as  he  did  without  losing  his 
entire  command."  * 

Perhaps  nothing  will  illustrate  Moseby's  intelligence  as  a  soldier  and 

*  Memoirs,  Vol.  II.,  p.  143. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  315 

the  amount  that  he  accomplished,  better  than  his  own  statement  of  the 
theory  upon  which  he  acted  as  a  partisan  leader,  and  the  recognition 
of  his  services  in  that  capacity  which  he  received  from  his  superiors. 
Of  the  first,  Colonel  Moseby  says  that  he  was  never  a  spy,  and  that  his 
warfare  was  always  such  as  the  laws  of  war  allow.  He  epitomizes 
his  theory  of  action  as  follows  :  "As  a  line  is  only  as  strong  as  its  weak- 
est point,  it  was  necessary  for  it  to  be  stronger  than  I  was  at  every 
point  in  order  to  resist  my  attacks.  .  .  .To  destroy  supply  trains, 
to  break  up  the  means  of  conveying  intelligence,  and  thus  isolating  an 
army  from  its  base,  as  well  as  its  different  corps  from  each  other,  to 
confuse  plans  by  capturing  dispatches,  are  the  objects  of  partisan  war- 
fare. .  .  .  The  military  value  of  a  partisan's  work  is  not  measured 
by  the  amount  of  property  destroyed,  or  the  number  of  men  killed  or 
captured,  but  by  the  number  he  keeps  watching.  Every  soldier  with- 
drawn from  the  front  to  guard  the  rear  of  an  army  is  so  much  taken 
from  its  fighting  strength."  What  he  accomplished  may  be  seen  in 
part  by  the  following,  which  is  a  copy  of  General  Lee's  indorsement  on 
Lieutenant-Colonel  Moseby's  report  of  his  operations  from  the  ist  of 
March  to  the  nth  of  September,  1864: 

HEADQUARTERS,  ARMY  NORTHERN  VIRGINIA, 

September  i9th,   1864. 
Respectfully  forwarded  to  the  Adjutant  and  Inspector-General  for 
the  information  of  the  department.     Attention  is  invited  to  the  activity 
and  skill  of  Colonel  Moseby,  and  the  intelligence  and  courage  of  the 
officers  and  men  of  his  command,  as  displayed  in  this  report. 

With  the  loss  of  little  more  than  twenty  men,  he  has  killed, 
wounded,  and  captured  during  the  period  embraced  in  this  report  about 
twelve  hundred  of  the  enemy,  and  taken  more  than  sixteen  hundred 
horses  and  mules,  230  beef  cattle,  and  eighty-five  wagons  and  ambu- 
lances, without  counting  many  smaller  operations.  The  services  ren- 
dered by  Colonel  Moseby  and  his  command  in  watching  and  reporting 
the  enemy's  movements  have  also  been  of  great  value.  His  operations 
have  been  highly  creditable  to  himself  and  his  command. 

(Signed)  R.  E.  LEE,  General. 

Official, 

JOHN  BLAIR  HOGK,  Major  and  Assistant  Adjutant- General. 

Discipline  was  not  as  strict  in  the  Confederate  as  in  the  Union  army, 
at  least  with  the  cavalry.  Privates  and  officers  were  more  familiar  — 
a  necessary  result  of  their  methods  of  recruiting  for  that  service.  The 
methods  of  cooking  and  of  camp  fare  were  also  dissimilar  to  our  boys'. 
They  took  "  pot  luck"  more  frequently,  and  did  not  receive  the  same 
abundance  or  quality  in  rations.  One  bane  of  a  soldier's  life  was  camp 


ji6  GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

guard.  They  never  minded  doing  sentinel  duty  on  the  out-posts.  The 
picket  line  was  a  place  of  horrpr,'rbf  danger,  and  responsibility,  yet 
there  was  something  inspiring  and  soldier-like  in  guarding  the  front. 
But  camp  guard,  compelling  them  to  stand  and  watch  over  a  pile  of 
corn,  or  a  lot  of  half  starved  army  mules,  or  some  equally  uninteresting 
object  —  it  was  then  that  the  iron  entered  the  soul,  and  many  were  the 
devices  practiced  by  u  old  soldiers"  to  be  relieved  of  this  duty. 

Here  let  us  pause.  The  years  have  passed,  summer  and  winter. 
Each  leason  in  its  appointed  time  has  held  in  its  embrace  the  north 
land  and  the  south  land  alike.  The  shell-shattered  tree,  the  cannon- 
rifted  earth,  the  torn  bastions,  the  fields  ploughed  by  "war's  dread 
enginery"  have  all  changed  their  rude,  sad  features.  The  tender 
touch  of  nature  has  shrouded  in  moss,  creeper,  and  verdure,  the  riven 
tree.  The  broken  earth  has  been  brought  by  industry  into  smiling 
places  of  plenty.  The  wild  flowers  bloom  where  the  deadly  missiles 
hurtled  fast  and  furious.  Dear  nature  has  kissed  alike  the  graves  of 
Union  and  Confederate,  and  her  robes  of  verdure  or  of  snow  are  the 
proofs  of  loving  impartiality.  But  memories  live.  The  "  boys"  came 
home  again,  North  and  South — but  alas  !  not  all  of  them.  As  Francis 
A.  Durivage  so  simply  and  pathetically  sings  : 

"  There  hangs  a  sabre,  and  there  a  rein, 
With  rusty  buckle  and  green  curb  chain ; 
A  pair  of  spurs  on  the  old  gray  wall, 
And  a  moldy  saddle, —  well,  that  is  all. 

"  Come  out  to  the  stable ;  it  is  not  far, 
The  moss-grown  door  is  hanging  ajar; 
Look  within  !     There's  an  empty  stall, 
Where  once  stood  a  charger, —  and  that  is  all. 

"  The  good  black  steed  came  riderless  home, 
Flecked  with  the  blood-drops,  as  well  as  foam. 
Do  you  see  that  mound,  where  the  dead  leaves  fall? 
The  good  black  horse  pined  to  death  —  that's  all. 

4 '  All  ?     O  God  !  it  is  all  I  can  speak, 
Question  me  not, —  I  am  old  and  weak. 
His  saddle  and  sabre  hang  on  the  wall, 
And  his  horse  pined  to  death  —  I  have  told  you  all." 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


A  WARNING  ON  THE  RIO  GRANDE. 

SHERIDAN  IS  SENT  TO  TEXAS — GRANT'S  LOVE  FOR  "LITTLE  PHIL" — AFTER 
THE  GRAND  REVIEW  —  LOGAN,  REYNOLDS,  BLUNT,  POPE,  AND  WEITZEL. 
ORGANIZING — WHAT  WAS  DESIGNED  FOR  MEXICO  —  ESCABEDO  AND  COR- 
TINAS  ON  THE  LOWER  GRANDE — HOW  THE  IMPERIALIST  MEJIA  FELT 
THEIR  POWER — ABANDONED  UNITED  STATES  MATERIAL  OBTAINED  BY 
MEXICO — JAUREZ  AT  PASO  DEL  NORTE  —  THE  OLD  CHURCH  —  OUR  CALI- 
FORNIA CAVALRYMEN  —  HOW  THE  MEXICAN  REPUBLICANS  WERE  AIDED  BY 
THE  UNION — DIFFICULT  TASK  TO  MAINTAIN  ORDER  IN  TEXAS. 

THE  surrender  of  Lee  with  the  chief  army  of  the  Confederacy  at 
Appomattox,  the  capture  of  Richmond  also,  and  the  flight  of  the  Con- 
federate President  and  of  his  Cabinet,  promised,  but  did  not  quite 
insure,  that  peace  for  which  the  leaders  of  the  Union  armies  had  been  so 
long  laboring.  Sherman  was  well  into  North  Carolina  when  Grant 
told  the  men  of  Lee's  army  to  take  their  horses  and  go  home  to  plough, 
accepting  unhesitatingly  the  paroles  of  men  who  had  been  under  arms 
four  years  for  the  purpose  of  dissevering  our  National  Union,  that 
thereafter  they  would  become  and  remain  faithful  and  peaceful  citizens 
of  the  land  they  had  sought  to  disrupture  with  such  courage  and  vigor 
as  compel  one  to  mourn  that  the  splendid  qualities  they  so  lavishly 
displayed  had  not  been  expended  in  a  better  cause  than  that  of  making 
4 'African  slavery"  the  "corner-stone"  of  a  confederacy,  wrhich  could 
not  exist  except  upon  the  ruins  of  our  Federal  Union.  The  military 
situation,  however,  concerns  the  victorious  commanders  more  than  the 
political  consequences  that  directly  follow  their  victories.  Still,  Grant 
could  not  be  quite  regardless  of  these. 

The  assassination  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  so  soon  after  Appomattox,  ter- 
ribly complicated  affairs  by  its  rapid  creation  of  a  public  opinion 
bitterly  hostile  to  all  elements  in  the  fallen  Confederacy.  We  now  see 
how  little  the  Southern  people  had  to  do  with  the  atrocious  acts  of 
Wilkes  Booth  and  his  small  band  of  conspirators  ;  but  at  that  date  we 
knew  it  not.  Then  came  the  Sherman-Johnston  compact,  under  the 


ji8  THE  LIFE  OF 

pretense  of  an  armistice.  With  all  his  genius,  Sherman  lacked  the 
marvelous  equipoise  which  made .(Sfrant  so  supremely  sagacious  in  war, 
and  in  all  its  operations  and  consequences.  He  could  not  and  did  not 
resist  the  trap  into  which  he  was  led  at  Raleigh,  under  the  hope  of 
solving  seriously  the  problems  of  permanent  peace,  found  in  the  rela- 
tions of  the  states  to  each  other.  It  needed  Grant's  faith  in  his  great 
lieutenant  and  the  public  confidence  in  himself  to  arrange  the  North 
Carolina  affair,  without  leaving  anything  but  some  sharp  personal  feel- 
ing behind  it. 

But  there  was  serious  work  for  Sheridan  to  do.  As  Adam  Badeau 
shows,  there  was  on  Grant's  part  a  genuine  love  for,  as  well  as  confi- 
dence felt  in  Sheridan  by  his  commanding  officer  and  those  about 
him.  Badeau  says  : 

"Without  Sheridan,  Grant's  triumph  would  not  have  been  so  com- 
plete ;  for  it  was  Sheridan,  who  by  rapid  marches  and  incessant  blows 
secured  the  enveloping,  and  thus  the  surrender  of  Lee.  After  this 
Grant  fairly  loved  Sheridan.  The  affection  was  founded  on  admiration  ; 
the  intimacy  grew  out  of  achievement.  While  Grant  was  sick  and 
dying,  Sheridan  wrote  :  '  It  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  use  words  to 
express  my  attachment  to  General  Grant  and  his  family.  I  have  not 
gone  to  see  him,  as  I  could  only  bring  additional  distress  to  them,  and 
I  want  to  remember  him  as  I  knew  him  in  good  health.' 

"At  the  close  of  the  war,  on  the  very  day  of  the  grand  review  at 
Washington,  Grant  dispatched  Sheridan  with  secret  orders  to  the  Rio 
Grande  to  watch  the  frontier.  He  was  told  to  be  ready  for  any  emer- 
gency. He  performed  his  part,  as  usual,  well,  and  when  the  French 
were  withdrawn  Grant  placed  him  in  command  at  New  Orleans." 

The  interest  thus  manifested  by  General  Grant  in  the  Republic  of 
Mexico,  and  the  condition  of  affairs  on  the  Rio  Grande  are  forcibly 
illustrated  in  the  following  letter,  written  a  little  later  by  the  conqueror 
of  Lee.  Grant  had  a  great  dislike  to  William  H.  Seward,  and  in  this 
letter  indirectly  exhibits  this  feeling.  The  letter  reads  : 

WASHINGTON,  June  i9th,  1865. 
His  EXCELLENCY  A.  JOHNSON, 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

The  great  interest  which  I  feel  in  securing  an  honorable  and  per- 
manent peace  whilst  we  still  have  in  service  a  force  sufficient  to  insure 
it,  induces  me  to  lay  my  views  before  you  in  an  official  form. 

In  the  first  place,  I  regard  the  act  of  attempting  to  establish  a  mon- 
archical government  on  this  continent  in  Mexico  by  foreign  bayonets, 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  319 

as  an  act  of  hostility  against  the  government  of  the  United  States.  If 
allowed  to  go  on  until  such  a  government  is  established  I  see  nothing 
before  us  but  a  long,  expensive,  and  bloody  war  ;  one  in  which  the 
enemies  of  this  country  will  be  joined  by  tens  of  thousands  of  disciplined 
soldiers,  embittered  against  their  government  by  the  experiences  of  the 
last  four  years. 

As  a  justification  for  open  resistance  to  the  establishment  of  Maxi- 
milian's government  in  Mexico,  I  would  give  the  following  reasons  : 

First  —  The  act  of  attempting  to  establish  a  monarchy  on  this  con- 
tinent was  an  act  of  known  hostility  to  the  government  of  the  United 
States  ;  was  protested  against  at  the  time,  and  would  not  have  been 
undertaken  but  for  the  great  war  which  was  raging,  and  which  it  was 
supposed  by  all  the  great  powers  of  Europe,  except,  possibly,  Russia, 
would  result  in  the  dismemberment  of  the  country,  and  the  overthrow 
of  republican  institutions. 

Second —  Every  act  of  the  empire  of  Maximilian  has  been  hostile  to 
the  government  of  the  United  States.  Matamoras  and  the  whole  Rio 
Grande  under  his  control,  has  been  an  open  port  to  those  in  rebellion 
against  this  government.  It  is  notorious  that  every  article  held  by  the 
rebels  for  export  was  permitted  to  cross  the  Rio  Grande,  arid  from 
there  go  unmolested  to  all  parts  of  the  world  ;  and  they  received  in  re- 
turn, all  articles,  arms,  munitions  of  war,  etc.,  they  desired.  Rebels  in 
arms  have  been  allowed  to  take  refuge  on  Mexican  soil,  protected  by 
French  bayonets.  French  soldiers  have  fired  on  our  men  from  the 
south  side  of  the  river  in  aid  of  the  rebellion.  Officers  acting  under 
the  authority  of  the  would-be  empire,  have  received  arms,  munitions, 
and  other  public  property  from  the  rebels  after  the  same  has  become 
the  property  of  the  United  States.  It  is  now  reported,  and  I  think 
there  is  no  doubt  of  the  truth  of  the  report,  that  large,  organized,  and 
armed  bodies  of  rebels  have  gone  to  Mexico  to  join  the  Imperialists. 

It  is  further  reported,  and  too  we  will  find  the  report  confirmed, 
that  a  contract  or  agreement  has  been  entered  into  with  Duke  Gwin,  a 
traitor  to  his  country,  to  invite  into  Mexico  armed  immigrants  for  the 
purpose  of  wrenching  from  the  rightful  government  of  that  country 
states  never  controlled  by  the  Imperialists.  It  will  not  do  to  remain 
quiet  and  theorize  that  by  showing  a  strict  neutrality  all  foreign  force 
will  be  compelled  to  leave  Mexican  soil.  Rebel  immigrants  will  go  to 
Mexico  with  arms  in  their  hands.  They  will  not  be  a  burden  upon 
the  states,  but,  on  the  contrary,  will  become  producers,  always  ready, 
when  emergency  arises,  to  take  up  their  arms  in  defence  of  the  cause 
they  espouse. 

That  their  leaders  will  espouse  the  cause  of  the  empire  purely 
out  of  hostility  to  this  government,  I  feel  there  is  no  doubt.  There 
is  a  hope  that  the  rank  and  file  may  take  the  opposite  side  if  any 
influence  is  allowed  to  work  upon  their  reason,  but  if  a  neutrality 
is  to  be  observed  which  allows  armed  rebels  to  go  to  Mexico,  and 
which  keeps  out  all  other  immigrants,  and  which  also  denies  to  the 
Liberals  of  Mexico  belligerent  rights  —  the  right  to  buy  arms  and 


320  THE  LIFE  OF 

munition  in  foreign  markets  and  to  transport  them  through  friendly 
territory  to  their  homes,  I  see  nox  ehance  for  such  influence  to  be 
brought  to  bear. 

What  I  would  propose  would  be  a  solemn  protest  against  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  monarchical  government  in  Mexico  by  the  aid  of  foreign 
bayonets.  If  the  French  have  a  just  claim  against  Mexico,  I  would 
regard  them  as  having  triumphed,  and  would  guarantee  them  suitable 
award  for  their  grievance.  Mexico  would,  no  doubt,  admit  their 
claim  if  it  did  not  affect  their  territory  or  right  as  a  free  people.  The 
United  States  could  take  such  pledges  as  would  secure  her  against  loss. 
How  all  this  could  be  done  without  bringing  on  an  armed  conflict, 
others  who  have  studied  such  matters  could  tell  better  than  I. 

If  this  course  cannot  be  agreed  upon,  then  I  would  recognize  equal 
belligerent  rights  to  both  parties.  I  would  interpose  no  obstacle  to  the 
passage  into  Mexico  of  emigrants  to  that  country.  I  would  allow 
either  party  to  buy  arms,  or  anything  else  we  have  to  sell,  and  inter- 
pose no  obstacle  to  their  transit. 

These  views  have  been  hastily  drawn  up,  and  contain  but  little  of 
what  might  be  said  on  the  subject  treated  of.  If,  however,  they  serve 
to  bring  the  matter  under  discussion,  they  will  have  accomplished  all 
that  is  desired. 

U.  S.  GRANT,  Lieutenant- General. 

West  of  the  Appalachian  ranges  there  still  remained,  even  at  the 
time  of  the  grand  review  at  Washington,  some  considerable  Confed- 
erate forces  in  the  field.  They  were  not  moving  actively,  it  was  true, 
but  sufficient  remained  for  a  possible  nucleus  of  any  projected  irreg- 
ular operations.  Certainly,  west  of  the  Mississippi,  in  Northern  Louis- 
iana, Southern  Arkansas,  and  Indian  Territory,  and  in  the  whole  of 
Texas,  Kirby  Smith,  Dick  Taylor,  and  Sterling  Price  remained  in 
command  of  a  considerable  army.  The  army  under  the  latter  had, 
it  was  true,  been  thoroughly  defeated  and  disorganized  the  preceding 
fall  by  our  "Army  of  the  Border,"  under  Generals  S.  R.  Curtis 
and  James  G.  Blunt,  commanding  the  troops  of  Kansas  and  Missouri. 
But  Texas  was  rich  in  supplies.  Her  people  had  grown  rich  from  the 
necessities  of  the  Confederacy.  It  was  a  serious  problem  for  the  Fed- 
eral authorities  to  consider,  and  ^Sheridan  was  the  one  commander  to 
be  intrusted  with  a  task  that  also  involved  the  possibility  of  a  foreign 
war.  To  subdue  Kirby  Smith  and  destroy  the  last  remnants  of  Con- 
federate resistance  was  an  easy  job  to  set  before  the  young  soldier 
who  had  harried  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  fought  the  battle  of  Five 
Forks,  and  at  Appomattox  secured  all  chances  of  Lee's  retreat  in 
his  vice-like  grip.  But  there  was  a  deliberate  intention,  not  publicly 
expressed  at  the  time,  but  felt  by  the  loyal  nation,  to  see  to  it  that  the 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  321 

Republic  of  Mexico  was  again  established,  and  that  the  invaders  and 
usurpers  thereof  should  be  compelled  to  withdraw.  Sheridan  was  sent 
to  the  performance  of  this  difficult  task.  The  selection  of  his  lieuten- 
ants was  left  to  his  judgment. 

A  few  days  after  the  occupation  of  Richmond,  which  occurred 
before  Appomattox,  Major-General  Godfrey  Weitzel,  of  the  Army  of 
the  James,  by  whom  the  Confederate  capital  was  taken,  was  ordered 
to  Washington.  On  arrival,  and  upon  reporting  to  the  War  Depart- 
ment, he  was  informed  by  Secretary  Stanton  of  the  intended  movement 
to  the  Rio  Grande  and  of  its  probable  character.  With  this  informa- 
tion he  was  offered  the  second  command,  under  General  Sheridan  as 
department  commander.  Troops  to  the  number  of  53,060  were 
already  detailed  for  the  new  field  operations,  and  General  Weitzel  was 
expected  to  proceed  at  once  to  Brownsville,  Texas.  Weitzel  and  his 
staff  were  on  the  ground  before  the  grand  review  was  over  at  the 
National  Capital. 

Steps  were  quickly  taken  in  preparation  of  any  work  that  might 
have  to  be  done.  General  John  A.  Logan  with  his  famous  Fourteenth 
Army  Corps  —  the  men  who  bore  through  so  many  campaigns  and 
battles,  the  significant  badge  of  a  cartridge-box  and  forty  rounds  — 
was  sent  from  Washington  to  Little  Rock,  Arkansas.  The  forces  in 
the  Department  of  Louisiana  were  sent  forward  towards  Shreveport. 
Major-General  J.  J.  Reynolds,  commanding  the  Department  of  Arkan- 


•mlkmt 


fi  &M^\wmiKd*  XMfowm^L 


LAS  CRUCES,  VALLEY  OF  MESILA,  NEW  MEXICO. 

HEADQUARTERS   OF   THE   CALIFORNIA   BRIGADE. 


THE  UFE  OF 

sas  and  ttiae  Seventh  Army  Corps,  was  at  little  Rock.    Major-Gen- 

enl  James  G.  "^^""^i  of  Kansas^  Itadibeen  oiilcied  fkum  fort  Leaven- 
::     _-  :  r:     >."-s:-.    :  n    7Vi    A----.-.:-    :~:    "_-_!_-    TV  7     :\:.,:    L-L~ 

.    ' :    . .  7  7  7      "  i  _  -    7       .117       v.       7' I  -1-  _    71V  r     _  77  7  . IV?    .7.    ~.  ~  ~     _   ._..  "  n    r«r  I*- 

-..i-     :..-  -7-7  7f_;v   r:  -.>    .  s;    r:_.  :r-r~-~:-i-     :    ivirri    .77jLv7~    i.-v  -    vv 
T    ~  1 7    '.'   '     . ..  vt  7  ~    .         ."     '  -.  r  i  _•:  _n~r-i    :  :  .  _  TV     : : 

""       -,_  ~~  ~  ~        _  ~   -    *    ~  ~.  ~       ."    '. '    t""""1'      •        ~  ~        _  ~    j.  •* 

and  pooh  ttowanfe  the  Rio  Grande,  in  the  ndgUKMEtood  of  El  P*3D,orr 
askwa»tihenlaiowi^tiicfi«iatierTil]j^o£F^  Major-Ocaeal 

Jobn  A.  Pope.  mte.  afio- tibe  second  battle  of  Boll  Rim,  was  placed 

~    ^  *    *_"  r     _  •  ^  ""  - "          '_  1         .7  T      .     7 

br  Majjor-Gcnenl  S.  R.  Curtis  and  ordered  to  the  command  of  the 
onHtaiy  AViaon  of  me  Misaoori^  with  headimjuiteis  at  St.  Loms. 

I17-.z:j.    r^.-.t: ..:._-.    '  ••-'-.-     £_-?-:    ::    ?  • -.         .-.T::>     :..-.:     ,-:•:-    if:r:    :: 
Z  :.-.-..->-  ...r.   -  :_-r  --.:_:-.   ::'-_-_  t  .-..:    >:--:.    --e:=   1-  =  -  t:-..  "-:-"z  i:  r.  r 


7    *      17      I       7  -..I  ~  -  7  7  7  7*          _~_    .     .    • 

had  h^^*»  received  through  this  piary  •or  the  Confederacr.    .A. 

^-""~-'.~.    "•'-.-    7T7  1 . 777-1  .  ~  7l     -'     TV  r    A  _  ?7T7  L  ~.  -  ~  '  7  77  '.  7        ~.'   lUrl"?      II" 

-A.  Cin**y^if*'a>t|hr  «»Ti»witiyy  of  »<•»••••••*••§  CcGr- 

dafli  ptBiniin'g  over  th^  R?*E  Giaude  bonier.     ^\Jifa>«r<li^»-1 

•im  .......  •• ...   .  i    „---..-.--.  .;. 

^^ ,          ^; I   _    _  <7.I      .....  7  *         _ 7       .    _  .-?*7  .         .  ?       ._       .          7  7  .   _      .  ._    7  ._.,...? 

:r.  -:.;:.  ^  ~  --\  ^~.  r  :~     -.-.  1:7  .:. . :  ^  i'  f  r. 7 

IT    "    7.5    7*7777  7    -7    ~7r7       '      Hi     ~    .    7_7  ~     _      7V  I  77777-    V  -T     77V  IV  7  :.     :•.•:.    7; 
""  '    '  -  ...7—.  "•    ' 

*  _    "   7  — 7    -  ~        __*-"' 

•MBBi^im^,  "HHlliM  TTJ  tto  pRMonp  the  SDrnssle.     It  was  anticinaflbBd  as  a. 

7.  7  7  _  *•  ?>7  I.I"  -'7'      _  7  "  7  7     V      T.~     f      T.-.  1 T         7      5  -       „  7  7  7  7  77     _  _  77 '    7     ".     7  '.7 

~-"  7  -i  r    i '  -   -  7 •       ^-  '-  v  .  i ;     L:  :.  .-.  -^  i:~  -:':--.:.-      :  7  7  -  ^   .  r.  :_-  7  .-.  :  :  -  :  • 

_v-  V  7  '     ^  .77    T_~      V7    TV.  7    7    _"  ". "  7  i  7  7  7      ...        II_!_V      71      _"7l-r7VI!7I'7_7's'l"77"7- 

_"7  .  .     _  1   _    V  1VV       '_._'.._      -  ~    '.    7  :      TV  I-     77  7  1  r  77  i  I  7    !  I     _  1         I  _  ~~.      7  "     _      r .  I  7  I  v  "     7  7 

-"  —  i-**,-  *y*     a     •••-••      *  -  -  -      -     -----"-..-     _    - ..--". 

.r        _  _  • 

jicais  straggte.  Tne  last  widku  between  t^nuy*  of  the  L^»v  armies 
.  a  few  dLii*  Bfter^  when  a  Texas  nwantijr  colonel* 
TV  1 7  nr  .-i:  -:T  ,iv  v^v  i  T"  iv  r  ^:"^.:±:  :ri_rv:  :- 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN.  32? 

Sheridan  remained  in  command  until,  in  fact,  the  invaders  had  left 
Mexico,  Maximilian  had  been  shot  at  Queretaro,  and  Jaurez,  the  great 
Indian  president  and  liberator,  was  once  more  established  in  the  city  of 
Mexico.  The  French  Emperor,  as  our  State  Department  reports  show 
in  the  correspondence  they  contain,  fully  understood  what  was  meant 
by  the  ordering  of  Sheridan  to  the  Rio  Grande  and  the  rapid  concen- 
tration in  the  Southwest  of  so  large  a  force.  Mr.  Seward  succeeded  in 
making  our  determination  quite  plain  to  the  crafty  schemer  of  the 
Tuileries.  The  withdrawal  of  Bazaine  by  Louis  Napoleon's  order,  was 
the  signal  for  the  downfall  of  his  puppet — the  Austrian  archduke  who 
played  emperor  for  about  four  years.  Sheridan  was  near  the  Rio 
Grande  until  the  end.  He  had  a  great  deal  of  interesting  work  to 
attend  to,  and  some  repressive  measures  to  rigidly  enforce,  amid  a  rest- 
less and  still  hostile  population.  It  is  unnecessary  to  say  that  his  work 
was  well  done. 

The  story  of  Mexico  and  our  relations  to  the  struggling  republic,  is 
one  of  great  interest.  It  has  never  been  told.  Probably  it  never  will 
be,  for  diplomats  are  statecraft  detectives  who  believe  in  secrecy  ;  and 
so  many  who  knew  since  these  events  have  u  crossed  the  river."  Sew- 
ard, Jaurez,  Grant,  Louis  Napoleon,  Maximilian,  Slidell,  Gwin,  and 
Mason,  might  have  given,  each  in  his  place,  the  whole  story.  Even 
now  Romero,  the  astute,  yet  honest  Mexican  representative,  could  out- 
line the  whole  matter.  It  is  probable,  however,  that,  like  the  presence 
of  a  Russian  fleet  on  the  Pacific  coast  during  our  Civil  War  period,  and 
the  subsequent  purchase  of  Alaska  from  Russia,  the  truth  about  the 
relations  between  the  United  States  and  Mexico  during  the  same  period 
will  only  be  hinted  at  and  never  fully  explained.  What  is  known, 
however,  is  worthy  of  recital,  especially  as  it  remained  an  instrument 
in  Sheridan's  hands  while  on  observation  upon  the  Rio  Grande. 

The  manner  in  which  the  Mexican  Republic  was  aided  in  many 
directions,  as  well  as  the  internal  questions  involved  in  the  maintenance 
of  order  within  our  own  borders  for  the  two  years  following  the 
advent  of  Generals  Sheridan  and  Weitzel,  would  form,  if  it  could  be 
fully  and  fairly  told,  one  of  the  most  interesting  chapters  of  the  war  and 
reconstruction  periods.  At  Brownsville  the  Union  commander  had 
his  hands  full  in  both  directions.  General  Mejia,  the  leading  Mexican 
commander  in  the  service  of  Maximilian,  had  his  headquarters  at 
Matamoras.  The  Republican  General  Escabedo  was  operating  against 
the  Imperialists  in  the  lower  part  of  what  is  now  known  as  the  Mexi- 
can Free  Zone.  Cortinas,  the  notorious  partisan  leader,  was  fighting 


324  GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

for  the  Republic,  and  made  himself  a  continued  thorn  in  the  side  of 
Mejia  and  the  Matamoras  Imperialists.  The  state  of  feeling  at  that 
place  towards  the  Federal  troops  and  their  cause  may  be  seen  in  an 
incident  that  occurred  but  a  few  evenings  before  General  Weitzel 
arrived  at  Brownsville.  A  mock  ftmeral  was  held  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
the  news  of  whose  assassination  had  just  arrived.  It  was  done  in 
derision.  Tapers  were  lighted,  masses  parodied  and  intoned,  and  at  the 
close  a  bottle  of  wine  was  opened  and  flung  over  the  mask  that  was  sup- 
posed to  represent  the  dead  American  President. 

The  Imperialist  Mejia  sought  eagerly,  however,  to  gain  the  good 
graces  of  the  Union  commander.  But  Weitzel,  under  orders,  acted 
with  a  cold  reserve  that  quickly  made  the  renegade  Mexican  and  his 
allies  understand  the  nature  of  the  feeling  with  which  he  and  they 
were  regarded  on  this  side  of  Rio  Grande  Bravo  del  Norte.  As  quickly, 
too,  did  the  Republicans  learn  the  sentiment  and  expectations  held  on 
our  side.  The  staff'  officers  and  others  were  tacitly  encouraged  in 
making  friends  with  the  Mexicans.  Cortinasand  Escabedo  were  early 
and  frequently  in  communication  with  our  headquarters.  A  staff 
officer  of  General  Weitzel,  now  a  practicing  physician  in  Providence, 
Dr.  Graves,  has  given  some  interesting  details  of  the  condition  of  the 
Mexican  camps  and  troops.  At  the  first  visit  made  to  General  Corti- 
nas'  camp  (on  leave,  and  privately  as  a  guest,  and  not  as  an  American 
officer)  it  was  found  that  one  thousand  men  were  present.  No  two 
arms  were  of  the  same  pattern,  and  in  the  whole  command  there  were 
but  eight  hundred  cartridges,  of  which  no  half  dozen  were  of  the  same 
number  or  pattern.  Escabedo's  camp  was  in  but  a  little  better  condition. 
Neither  command  possessed  a  quartermaster  or  commissary  depart- 
ment ;  and  they  were  both  entirely  without  surgeons,  medical  stores, 
drugs,  or  hospital  service  of  any  kind.  It  is  true  that  they  possessed 
the  Indian-Mexicans'  wonderful  knowledge  of  simples  and  herbs,  o'f 
that  remarkable  pharmacopia  of  nature  which  the  woods,  shrubs,  and 
plants  of  Mexico  offer  in  abundance  to  those  who  know  their  secrets. 

But  it  soon  became  evident  to  the  Imperialists  that  the  Republicans 
were  rapidly  becoming  better  equipped,  especially  in  arms  and  ord- 
nance stores.  They  could  readily  guess  the  source  of  supply,  but  did 
not  dare  make  their  knowledge  a  cause  of  complaint. 

About  that  time  it  is  probable  that  the  records  of  the  War  Depart- 
ment will  show  an  extraordinary  shipment  of  arms  and  munitions  of 
war,  of  quartermaster's  supplies,  of  artillery  and  equipments,  and  of 
commissariat  and  medical  stores,  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  Browns.- 


^ 


THE  PLAZA  AND  CHURCH  OF  PASO  DEL  NORTE,  CHIHUAHUA, 

MEXICO. 

THE  OLD  CHURCH  HELD  AS  A  FORTRESS  BY  THE  MEXICAN  REPUBLICANS. 


THE  LIFE  OF 

ville.  Enough  material  of  war  was  forwarded  to  the  Southwest  to 
well  equip  and  furnish  a  moderate'sized  army,  in  addition  to  what  was 
actually  needed  for  the  Union  troops  stationed  in  Sheridan's  department. 

Another  fact  that  would  be  found  is  the  extraordinary  amount  of 
such  material  that  was  condemned  and  ordered  to  be  abandoned.  And 
it  was  abandoned,  but  always  in  very  lonely  parts  of  the  Rio  Grande 
Valley,  long  distances  above  Brownsville,  contiguous  to  and  upon  the 
river  bank.  Somehow  these  well-guarded  trains  of  condemned  and 
abandoned  army  stores  andt  munitions  were  always  left  at  night-fall 
without  escort.  Is  it  any  wonder,  then,  that  Cortinas  or  some  other  of 
the  Republican  leaders  always  contrived  to  cross  the  Rio  Grande  in 
their  bullock-hide  boats  and  before  morning  to  remove  to  their  own  side 
these  valuable  munitions  which  some  lucky  fate  had  left  at  their  dis- 
posal? There  was,  also,  another  act  in  this  interesting  drama  which 
will  bear  telling. 

El  Paso,  now  a  well-known  centre  of  railroad  and  commercial 
activity,  in  1865  was  a  frontier  village,  with  more  swagger,  crime, 
treason,  and  murder  to  the  square  foot,  according  to  inhabitants,  than 
any  other  place  upon  the  North  American  Continent.  It  had  been 
famousrbefore  as  the  starting  point  of  military  operations  at  the  time 
of  the  first  Mexican  War.  Doniphan's  Missouri  command,  after  its 
march  across  the  plains  and  into  New  Mexico,  was  sent  by  General  Phil 
Kearney  to  the  village  of  Franklin  (El  Paso)  to  hold  it  as  an  important 
observation  point  upon  the  extreme  northeast  frontier  of  Chihuahua. 
When  the  slave-holders'  rebellion  had  begun  and  ended,  El  Paso  still 
remained  in  Confederate  hands.  It  was  soon  after  occupied  by  our 
California  volunteers.  A  post  of  the  United  States  now  stands  a  couple 
of  miles  above  the  city,  ensconced  on  a  small  plateau,  just  overlooking 
the  narrow  Rio  Grande  Valley,  and  embraced  almost  roughly  by  the 
mountain  ranges  crowding  it  in  on  either  side.  It  is  a  wild,  rough 
region,  weird  even  to  ugliness,  with  its  gray  grass,  its  brown  mountain 
and  mesa  sides  —  often  so  grotesque  in  their  eroded  forms  ;  its  stunted 
trees  and  hideous  cacti  —  the  very  hobgoblin  of  the  vegetable  world. 
Its  human  occupants  are  less  lovely,  as  a  rule,  than  even  its  natural 
aspects.  But  it  is  beautiful,  also,  beyond  the  poet's  dream  to  describe,  or 
the  painter's  genius  and  skill  to  depict.  A  marvelous  atmosphere 
clothes  it  in  wondrous  radiance.  Even  when,  at  mid-day,  the  earth  lies 
bald  and  naked  beneath  its  translucent  blue,  the  wondrous  clearness  of 
the  arching  sky  lends  enchantment  to  the  vast  outlook.  But  it  is  at 
night  and  morning — at  dawn  and  sundown  —  that  the  glory  of  the  wild 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  ^27 

region  becomes  so  marvelous  that  one's  pen  may  well  falter  in  an 
attempt  to  describe  it.  The  rainbow's  colors  are  but  as  idle  shadows 
beside  those  that  the  atmosphere  paints  along  the  Rio  Grande  to  wel- 
come the  sunrise  or  bid  the  moon  and  stars  to  their  constant  charming. 
The  chasms,  rough  and  jagged  on  mountain  sides,  are  draped  in  the 
deepest,  richest  purple.  The  saw-toothed  crests  are  all  golden  in  the 
river  of  sunshine.  The  red,  rugged  mesa  becomes  a  lake  of  beauteous 
hues.  Far  and  near,  all  outlines  grow  tender  and  soft.  In  the  morning 
the  scene  is  one  of  radiant  glory.  In  the  evening  it  becomes  a  land- 
scape of  mystical  softness  and  bewildering  enchantment,  so  lovely  are 
the  shadows,  and  so  wonderful  the  changes  wrought  by  the  magical 
touch  of  the  arid  atmosphere. 

Across  the  shallow  boundary  river  lies  the  Mexican  village  of  Paso 
Del  Norte,  with  its  dirty,  straggling  adobe  dwellings,  its  uncouth  plaza, 
and  ugly  if  historical  church  building.  For  a  thousand  years,  it  is  proba- 
ble, has  this  been  the  site  of  human  dwellings  and  activity.  It  is  the  ex- 
treme northeasterly  point  of  Mexican  territory.  Its  inhabitants  (the 
Pueblo  extends  for  several  miles  down  the  river)  are  nearly  all  of  the 
indigenous  Indian  stock  of  Northern  Mexico.  They  are  the  most  patri- 
otic of  Mexicans,  and  the  story  of  the  republic  almost  begins  in  this 
frontier  village  ;  nay,  it  almost  ended  there,  just  before  the  period  of  Sher- 
idan's appearance  in  the  Southwest.  It  was  in  the  village  of  Paso  Del 
Norte  that  the  adherents  of  the  patriot-priest,  Hidalgo,  made  their  last 
stand  against  their  Spanish  oppressors,  while  the  liberator  was  being 
executed  at  the  city  of  Chihuahua.  It  was  here,  too,  that  Jaurez  and 
his  representatives  maintained  for  nearly  two  years  one  of  their  last  ter- 
ritorial footholds  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Sierra  Madre. 

The  Mexican  people  understood  from  the  beginning  the  character 
of  our  Civil  War.  This  is  seen  by  the  fact  that  early  in  1862  —  it  was 
in  May  —  the  Mexican  Congress  passed  in  secret  session,  and  without 
opposition,  a  joint  resolution  permitting  the  authorities  of  the  United 
States  to  land  troops  from  California  at  Guaymas,  Sonora,  on  the  Gulf 
of  California,  and  march  the  same  overland  through  Mexican  territory, 
to  the  Rio  Grande,  Texas.  What  greater  proof  of  sympathetic  alli- 
ance could  be  given  ?  It  is  also  understood  that  had  it  been  necessary, 
the  troops  of  the  friendly  republic  would  then  have  been  used  in  our 
behalf.  The  permission  of  Mexico  was  never  taken  advantage  of,  owing 
to  the  fact  that  the  Confederate  General  Sibley,  who  invaded  New  Mex- 
ico byway  of  the  Rio  Grande  in  the  winter  of  1861—2,  was  driven  out 
completely  by  the  Mexican  volunteers  of  New  Mexico  and  the  First 


328  THE  LIFE  OF 

Colorado  Volunteer  Cavalry,  under  Colonel  Slough.  Sibley  and  Baylor 
both  acted  in  their  invasions  of  tha^olithwest  in  the  interest  of  a  Con- 
federate plan  to  conquer  California.  In  this  Sibley 's  intimates  now 
assert  that  they  were  to  have  the  assistance  of  Mexico,  the  northern 
states  of  which  were  to  be  sold  to  the  Confederacy.  So  far  as  the 
Mexican  Republicans  were  concerned,  the  rebel  leaders  "  reckoned 
without  their  host."  There  was  a  cessation  of  recruiting  efforts  for 
a  while  in  California,  but  in  the  fall  of  1862,  a  brigade  of  cavalry, 
under  Carlton  and  West,  both  West  Pointers,  started  from  Drum  Bar- 
racks, Wilmington,  Southern  California,  on  a  long  overland  march 
of  nearly  twelve  hundred  miles,  passing  across  the  Colorado  desert, 
and  entering  Arizona  at  Yuma,  marched  up  the  Gila  Valley,  driving 
back  the  Apache  marauders  as  they  moved.  They  reoccupied  Tucson, 
which  had  been  held  by  Confederate  guerrillas,  and  then  they 
advanced  over  the  Chiricuhua  Mountains,  meeting  and  defeating  the 
Apaches,  into  New  Mexico.  In  the  early  spring  of  1863,  they  watered 
their  horses  in  the  Rio  Grande,  occupying  the  valley  of  Mesila,  and 
establishing  brigade  headquarters  at  Las  Cruces,  forty  miles  above 
El  Paso  and  the  Mexican  frontier.  General  Carlton  was  assigned 
to  the  command  of  the  department,  and  West,  promoted  as  brigadier- 
general,  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  Californians.  There  was  consid- 
erable active  service  against  Apaches  and  Navajo,  and  an  occasional 
Confederate  guerrilla  raid.  But  the  great  duty  performed  by  the 
California  troops  was  that  of  holding  and  protecting  the  Republic 
of  Mexico,  almost  in  extremis,  at  the  village  of  Paso  Del  Norte.  The 
homely  church  structure  of  that  place  was  turned  into  a  rude  fortress, 
which  was  armed  with  two  Parrott  guns  and  several  hundred  repeat- 
ing rifles.  This  armament  found  its  way  to  Paso  Del  Norte  across  the 
frontier  of  the  United  States.  It  was  placed  there  by  General  West's 
knowledge,  and  with  the  approval  of  Mr.  Seward,  as  well  as  the  Wai- 
Department.  For  the  next  two  years  it  was  the  California  volunteers 
who  always  appeared  on  furlough  at  the  Mexican  village  when  the 
French  troops  occupying  Chihuahua,  came  nearer  to  the  northern  fron- 
tier than  was  usual  with  them. 

The  Californians  were  kept  at  Las  Cruces  to  protect  the  Mexican 
<•  Republicans  at  Paso  Del  Norte.  And  it  was  from  this  point  that  a 
cavalry  column  of  Sheridan's  would  have  entered  Mexico,  in  1865,  had 
it  become  necessary  to  overthrow  the  bastard  empire  by  the  employment 
of  our  forces.  The  brave  Mexicans  were  able  to  work  out  their  own 
freedom,  but  the  United  States  stood  ready  to  assist.  The  moral 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  329 

force  of  that  fact,  felt  at  Paris,  Vienna,  and  Queretaro,  finally  and  visibly 
aided  to  crumble  the  usurpation  to  pieces. 

But  the  indirect  and  diplomatic  service  Sheridan's  troops  were  ren- 
dering to  Mexico  comprised  but  a  small  portion  of  the  complex  and 
perplexing  duties  that  devolved  upon  the  department  administration. 

When  General  Weitzel,  his  second  in  command,  arrived  at  Browns- 
ville, in  the  latter  part  of  April,  1865,  he  found  a  hostile  Confederate 
army,  under  Kirby  Smith  and  Sterling  Price,  still  in  the  field.  That 
was  the  smaller  factor  in  the  problem.  It  speedily  solved  itself  by  the 
surrender  at  Shreveport.  The  real  trouble  was  in  Texas.  Here  Con- 
federates not  only  considered  themselves  as  having  never  been  "  subju- 
gated "  by  the  "Yankee  hirelings"  they  affected  to  despise,  but  the 
state  began  at  once  to  swarm  with  the  more  desperate  and  reckless  of 
the  minor  Confederate  leaders  and  soldiers,  who,  penniless  and  full  of 
dangerous  despair,  had  made  their  way  into  the  Lone  Star  State  from 
the  Southern  armies  that  were  dissolving  away  east  of  the  Mississippi 
River.  A  great  many  of  them  would  have  rejoiced,  in  impotent  hos- 
tility, of  the  chance  to  swell  the  forces  of  Maximilian,  provided  they 
could  have  seen  the  opportunity  of  a  collision  with  the  Federal  forces 
once  more.  Others  there  were  —  and  their  number  was  by  no  means 
insignificant  —  who  would  gladly  have  availed  themselves  of  such  an 
occasion  to  have  entered  the  armies  of  the  republic. 

But  these  men  were  there,  by  the  thousands,  desperate  and  penni- 
less. Grafted  on  the  usual  population  of  Texas,  at  that  date  exceed- 
ingly hostile,  the  problem  of  maintaining  order  was  one  of  a  peculiarly 
responsible  character.  General  Weitzel  set  an  early  example  of  a 
needed  sternness.  The  week  before  his  arrival  there,  fourteen  assas- 
sinations occurred  on  the  streets  of  the  town.  In  the  week  after  his 
arrival  General  Weitzel  tried  and  condemned  a  number  of  the  assassins, 
executing  four  of  them  on  one  gallows.  As  a  further  illustration,  an 
incident  is  recalled  that  occurred  months  later,  when  an  ex-Confederate 
officer  who  had  ranged  himself  on  the  side  of  Union  law  and  order,  was 
severely  wounded  in  Northern  Texas  while  defending  the  Union  flag 
from  a  party  of  Texas  sympathizers  with  Mr.  Johnson.  This  officer 
had  passed  unscathed  through  the  war. 

Sheridan's  duties  in  Texas  then  covered  a  vast  range.  They  were 
met  as  promptly  as  they  rose.  Texas  was  gradually  brought  into  line 
with  law  and  order.  As  the  years  roll  on,  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
acrid  medicine  of  Sheridan's  unyielding  administration  was  doubtless 
the  only  potion  that  could  at  the  time  have  been  administered. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 


SHERIDAN    IN   RECONSTRUCTION   DAYS. 

CONDITIONS    PRECEDING    AND    ATTENDING     RECONSTRUCTION — COMMANDING    IN 
THE  GULF  STATES  —  NEW  ORLEANS  — ANDREW  JOHNSON'S  INTERFERENCE  — 

MECHANICS  HALL  MASSACRE — RECONSTRUCTION  LEGISLATION  —  SHERIDAN'S 
SERVICE  UNDER  IT  —  SHOWS  EXCELLENT  EXECUTIVE  ABILITY  —  EJECTING  A 
GOVERNOR — HIS  BANDIT  DELIVERANCE — HE  GIVES  THE  PRESIDENT  THE 
"LIE  DIRECT" — ABLE  BUT  THANKLESS  SERVICE  —  APPOINTMENT  OF 

GENERAL    HANCOCK. 

MAJOR-GENERAL  SHERIDAN  left  Washington  for  the  Rio  Grande 
early  in  May,  1865.  What  he  was  sent  there  to  do  has  already  been 
suggested.  He  was  placed  in  command  of  the  Department  of  the  Gulf, 
which  in  June  following  Grant  extended  to  cover  Louisiana  and 
Florida,  as  well  as  Texas,  with  headquarters  at  New  Orleans.  This 
was  done  because  a  strong  hand  and  firm  will  was  particularly  required 
at  that  point.  Indications  were  not  wanting  to  Grant's  sagacious 
observation  of  the  growth  of  that  wide  divergence  of  opinion  between 
President  Andrew  Johnson  and  the  leaders  of  the  party  which  had 
been  in  power  throughout  the  Rebellion,  and  were  therefore  responsible 
for  the  legislation  of  the  land,  and  mainly,  also,  for  its  administration. 
These  wide,  even  fundamental  divergencies  of  opinion  and  action 
between  the  President  who  constitutionally  succeeded  after  the  assas- 
sination of  the  beloved  Lincoln,  were  to  place  the  soldiers  of  the  Union 
in  a  terrible  dilemma  when  Congress  came  to  impose  upon  them  the 
execution  of  civic  duties,  requirements,  and  authority,  in  the  ex-Con- 
federate States.  General  Sheridan  was  placed,  of  all  who  were  so 
assigned,  in  the  most  embarrassing  position,  for  he  certainly  had  not 
only  the  more  '  turbulent  population  to  deal  with,  but  the  conditions 
surrounding  him  were  of  an  extremely  complex  character.  That  he  con- 
ducted himself  wisely,  even  if  he  dealt  sternly  and  severely  with  those 
whom  he  truthfully  deemed  "banditti,"  enleagued  for  the  oppression 
and  even  murder  of  others  on  account  of  political  differences,  is  seen 
in  the  fact  that  the  representatives  of  the  same  communities,  more 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  jji 

than  twenty  years  after  the  events  referred  to  in  this  chapter,  while 
holding  the  same  political  opinions  that  largely  governed  the  action  of 
those  Sheridan  in  the  line  of  duty  felt  compelled  to  suppress,  have 
openly  declared  their  judgment  to  be,  that  this  American  soldier  was 
governed  only  by  his  best  and  highest  convictions,  and  that  in  no  sense 
did  he  ever  seek  knowingly  to  unduly  interfere  with  civil  liberty  or 
personal  rights.  The  acknowledgment  thus  made  on  the  floor  of  Sen- 
ate and  House,  as  well  as  in  the  party  press,  always  opposed  to  the 
reconstruction  policy,  is  a  striking  proof  of  how  fast  and  far  we  have 
traveled  towards  that  state  of  feeling  which  enables  us  to  discuss  the 
past  with  little  of  personal  asperity,  or  to  make  up  judgments,  even 
while  differing,  with  but  a  modicum  of  partisan  bitterness.  The  admis- 
sions thus  made  as  to  motives  in  this  matter,  are  among  the  finest  tributes 
yet  paid  to  the  fame  and  character  of  Philip  Henry  Sheridan. 

In  order  to  place  Sheridan's  policy  and  actions  in  the  right  perspec- 
tive and  relations,  it  will  be  necessary  to  outline  the  political-social 
conditions  that  followed  the  collapse  of  the  Southern  Confederacy,  but 
more  especially  the  special  events  that  influenced  the  situation  in  Louis- 
iana. As  a  powerful  commercial  state,  having  within  its  borders  the 
lower  part  of  the  "Father  of  Waters  " — the  Mississippi  —  and  the 
largest  city  of  the  South,  the  Pelican  State  had,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
secession  movement,  a  considerable  Union  sentiment  among  its  influen- 
tial and  wealthier  citizens.  It  possessed  a  unique  free  colored  popula- 
tion, of  considerable  wealth  and  education,  generally  Creoles  in  descent, 
by  the  fact  of  their  having  a  male  parent  of  French  or  Spanish  birth  or 
ancestry.  The  existence  of  this  people  was  in  itself  a  guarantee  of  more 
intelligence  among  the  slaves  wherever  their  influence  extended,  even 
though  the  Creole  class  held  themselves  aloof  and  in  some  instances  were 
also  slave-holders.  These  conditions  are  mentioned  to  show  how,  after 
Farragut  and  Butler  captured  New  Orleans  and  the  power  of  the  Union 
began  to  be  felt  once  more  in  the  lower  river  parishes,  and  gradually  there- 
from into  the  other  portions  of  the  state,  as  the  Confederate  forces  were 
slowly  driven  out,  the  demand  became  urgent  to  establish  civil  govern- 
ment in  due  relations  with  the  Union. 

Under  General  Banks,  in  1864  a  constitutional  convention  was  con- 
vened, and  the  anti-secession  constitution  and  state  was  set  up,  with  J. 
Madison  Wells  as  governor.  He  was  a  well-known  planter  and  law- 
yer, who  claimed  to  have  remained  faithful  to  the  Union  in  sentiment. 
In  this  movement  the  colored  Unionists  were  not  included,  neither 
public  p'olicy  nor  sentiment  having  definitely  reached  the  point  of 
their  inclusion. 


THE  LIFE  OF 

The  convention  of  1864  sought  to  perpetuate  itself  by  providing  in  a 
schedule  attached  to  the  constitution' tliey  framed,  for  their  being  recon- 
vened at  the  call  of  their  president,  Judge  Durell.  It  was  the  attempt 
to  exercise  this  questionable  power  —  not  by  Judge  Durell,  but  by  Judge 
Ho  well,  afterwards  United  States  Senator  from  Louisiana,  who  claimed 
on  DurelPs  retirement  from  the  convention  presidency  to  be  his  suc- 
cessor—  that  brought  about  the  terrible  tragedy  at  Mechanics  Hall  in 
New  Orleans  during  the  summer  of  1866,  an  event  which  first  brought 
Sheridan  prominently  forward  in  connection  with  Southern  affairs,  and 
finally  was  the  immediate  cause  of  the  famous  reconstruction  legisla- 
tion of  Congress. 

It  is  not  proposed  to  enter  into  the  right  or  wrong,  politically  speak- 
ing, of  that  legislation,  or  to  discuss  the  constitutional  interpretations 
that,  pro  and  con,  were  raised  thereon.  But  it  is  necessary  to  state  the 
plain  historical  facts  as  they  appear  from  the  Union  stand-point.  Pres- 
ident Johnson  was  a  Tennesseean,  whose  fidelity  to  the  Union  cause 
during  the  secession  movements  and  in  the  civil  war  that  followed, 
justly  excited  for  him  the  regard  of  the  loyal  North.  He  was  made  a 
brigadier-general,  and  assigned  to  duty  as  military  governor  of  Tennessee 
—  a  state  in  which  the  powerful  Union  element  had  been  at  first  dra- 
gooned into  helplessness  by  Confederate  agencies  and  forces.  It  was  a 
necessary  condition  of  war  politics  that  in  such  states  as  Louisiana, 
Tennessee,  Missouri,  as  well  as  later,  Arkansas,  also,  the  Union  element, 
should  be  protected  in  the  reorganizing  of  their  state  governments  on 
Union  lines.  It  was  this  policy  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  administration  that 
affbcded  the  only  basis  for  the  subsequent  attempts  of  Mr.  Johnson  to 
"restore,"  not  "reconstruct,"  the  ex-Confederate  States  —  an  attempt 
on  his  part  which  produced  the  bitter  controversy  between  the  Executive 
and  Congress  that  raged  until  General  Grant  was  first  elected  President, 
in  1868.  There  was  a  wide  difference  in  this  matter  between  Lincoln 
and  Johnson.  Mr.  Lincoln  had  the  full  confidence  of  the  country,  and 
in  all  such  matters  as  are  under  discussion  acted  in  general  upon  the  lines 
of  approving  legislation.  In  other  matters  he  was  within  the  orbit  of 
his  powers  under  the  war  necessities.  The  Union  state  governments 
named  were  set  in  motion  to  aid  the  army  movement  as  much,  or  even 
more,  than  they  were  to  inaugurate  loyal  civil  government.  Mr.  John- 
son was  in  a  very  different  position.  The  war  was  over,  and  the  mili- 
tary army  of  the  Union  was  to  be  used  only  to  keep  order  and  aid  in  the 
final  reestablishment  of  the  Federal  government.  Congress  was  in 
full  possession  of  its  constitutional  initiative.  It  was  no  longer  the  rule 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  jjj 

that  in  war  the  law  was  silent.  From  the  Union  stand-point  —  that  from 
which  the  war  was  fought — Mr.  Johnson's  deliberate  attempt,  in  the 
summer  and  fall  of  1865,  to  forestall  the  possible  action  of  Congress, 
and  by  executive  order  to  settle  the  whole  question  in  advance  of  the 
current  relations  of  the  ex-Confederate  States  to  the  Nation  they  had 
attempted  to  destroy,  and  the  Union  they  sought  by  war  to  disrupture, 
was  to  be  regarded  as  doubtful  and  dangerous  in  character,  if  not, 
indeed,  a  deliberate  usurpation  on  his  part.  His  first  act  in  this  direc- 
tion—  that  of  amnesty  —  while  founded  on  a  constitutional  power,  was 
made  so  broad,  and  yet  so  craftily  worded,  as  to  arouse  well-founded 
alarm.  In  the  thirteen  classes  of  formerly  active  rebels  who  could  only 
secure  pardon  by  direct  application  to  the  President,  if  he  so  willed, 
were  to  be  found  the  representative  men  of  the  various  social  and 
ruling  classes  into  which  the  forces  of  chattelism  had  divided  the  slave- 
owning  South.  Mr.  Johnson  was  thus  able  to  personally  reach,  by  the 
exercise  of  his  privilege  of  amnesty,  each  of  these  controlling  forces. 
Following  this  peculiar  exercise  of  the  pardoning  power  came  a  bolder 
policy,  in  the  recognition  of  the  de  facto  civil  power  remaining  over 
in  several  states  from  the  military  collapse,  as  possessing  the  de  juro 
right  to  inaugurate  a  new  and  complete  civil  structure  within  the  states 
where  such  fragments  of  government  were  found.  Thus  Mr.  John- 
son's policy  of  "restoration"  was  initiated. 

The  Republicans  in  control  of  Congress,  who  as  Unionists  had 
chosen  and  elected  Mr.  Johnson  as  Vice-President,  and  necessarily  sus- 
tained his  entrance  on  the  executive  powers  and  duties  after  Mr. 
Lincoln's  assassination,  could  not  see  that  it  was  their  duty  to  consent 
to  such  a  course  as  Mr.  Johnson  was  pursuing,  or  to  regard  its  pro- 
mulgation as  within  his  constitutional  right.  The  exigencies  of  the  war 
had  brought  to  the  victors  the  powers  of  a  triumphant  belligerent. 
They  had  also  placed  in  their  hands  the  future  condition  of  a  race 
emancipated  as  a  war  measure.  More  than  either  consideration,  was 
the  constitutional  power  to  initiate  legislation,  which  certainly  does  not 
rest  with  the  American  Executive.  Legislation  was  necessary.  Presi- 
dential orders  and  proclamations  were  not  laws.  Mr.  Johnson  acted  as 
if  they  were.  So  did  his  Southern  allies,  growing  turbulent  with  the 
encouragement  they  received.  Congress  began  the  long  and  fierce  dis- 
cussion of  reconstruction  days  in  its  session  of  1865-6.  Johnson 
denounced  its  conduct  as  usurpation  and  its  leaders  as  revolutionists, 
raising  thereby  the  hopes  of  the  ex-Confederate  politicians  and  people, 
not  in  the  direction  of  separation  from,  but  of  domination  by  the  South, 


THE  LIFE  OF 

as  of  old,  within  the  Union.  They  also  showed  very  clearly  what 
treatment  the  freed  people  might  expect  at  their  hands.  The  laws 
proposed  in  the  so-called  legislatures  of  South  Carolina,  Mississippi, 
Florida,  and  other  states,  sought  to  make  of  the  emancipated  a  per- 
manently dependent  class,  whose  children,  under  a  forced  apprentice- 
ship system,  were  to  be  made  serfs  and  would  be  eventually  reduced 
again  to  personal  bondage.  The  adults  were  to  be  placed  by  these  pro- 
posed codes  at  the  mercy  of  the  whites,  to  be  compelled  to  make  con- 
tracts to  labor  or  to  be  sold  as  paupers,  not  to  be  allowed  to  move  about 
at  free  will,  to  have  their  occupations  and  trades  unduly  taxed,  not  to 
carry  arms,  and  in  a  hundred  ways  to  be  placed  in  the  position  of  serf- 
dom. These  attempts  aroused  the  strongest  indignation  at  the  North, 
and  it  also  excited  counter-efforts  at  the  South,  which  in  Louisiana,  at 
least,  brought  on  the  first  of  the  bloody  collisions  of  reconstruction 
days,  involving  Sheridan's  name  and  administration  in  their  progress 
and  outcome. 

In  Louisiana  the  citizens  in  sympathy  with  the  Johnson  policy  soon 
became  the  most  active,  as  the  returning  Confederate  soldiery  of  that 
state  settled  down  again.  Without  the  colored  men,  free  or  freed,  the 
Unionists  were  in  a  decided  minority.  With  them  they  would  be  a 
large  majority  unless  prevented  from  the  exercise  of  the  franchise  by 
violence. 

This  wTas  the  state  of  affairs  in  the  summer  of  1866.  Governor 
Wells  was  almost  helpless.  The  lieutenant-governor,  Voorhees,  was 
an  ex-Confederate  soldier,  as  was  the  attorney-general.  The  mayor 
of  New  Orleans,  J.  T.  Munroe,  was  notorious  for  his  dislike  of 
Unionism.  He  had  been  compelled  to  leave  the  city  by  Butler.  His 
chief  of  police  was  an  ex-Confederate  officer,  and  the  police  were  nearly 
all  ex-rebel  soldiers.  In  calling  the  constitutional  convention  together, 
the  "  radicals"  declared  their  purpose  to  be  the  enfranchisement  of  the 
colored  Unionists,  and  the  exclusion  from  the  ballot-box,  for  a  time  at 
least,  of  the  ex-rebel  citizens.  This  created  bitter  hostility  and  anger. 
Judge  Abell,  of  the  city  criminal  court,  who  had  been  a  member  of  the 
original  convention,  charged  the  grand  jury  against  its  lawfulness 
after  Judge  Howell  had  issued  the  call  to  reconvene  and  Governor 
Wells'  proclamation  for  an  election  to  fill  vacancies.  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor  Voorhees  set  himself,  with  the  state  machinery  behind  him,  to 
6ppose  the  governor,  and  with  the  mayor  decided  to  disperse  the  con- 
vention if  it  should  meet.  In  other  words  it  was  decided,  if  the  mili- 
tary did  not  protect  them,  to  kill  off  the  whole  body.  Abell's  opinion 
and  the  grand  jury's  indictments  were  to  be  the  legal  pretexts. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  335 

General  Sheridan  was  not  in  New  Orleans  when  the  movement 
began.  It  is  safe  to  assert  that  if  he  had  been  the  convention  would 
not  have  met,  or  that  it  would  have  been  protected  if  it  had  done  so. 
Major-General  Absolom  Baird,  now  inspector-general  of  the  United 
States  Army,  was  department  commander. 

Judge  R.  K.  Howell's  proclamation  was  issued  July  7,  1866.  The 
governor's  election  order  was  issued  on  the  27th.  The  convention 
was  to  assemble  on  the  fifth  Monday  (3oth)  in  July.  On  the  night  of 
the  27th  the  radicals  held  an  open-air  meeting,  at  which  it  was  charged 
inflammatory  speeches  were  made.  Any  expression  was  accounted 
such  that  favored  the  colored  people  and  did  not  then  agree  with  the 
ex-Confederates  and  their  wishes. 

The  Mechanics  Hall  tragedy  occurred  just  before  noon  on  Monday, 
the  3oth  of  July.  It  began  on  the  street  in  an  attack  on  a  small  pro- 
cession, and  was  continued  in  the  hall.  The  New  Orleans  police  sur- 
rounded and  entered  the  building,  shooting,  wounding,  and  killing 
indiscriminately.  The  governor's  office  was  in  the  building.  That 
they  did  not  enter.  General  Baird  had  troops  in  readiness,  but  had 
decided  not  to  interfere  for  or  against  the  convention.  This  was 
before  the  attack.  General  Baird  sent  an  aide  to  learn  when  the  body 
would  meet.  He  was  told  that  they  had  met  and  adjourned  until  6 
p.  M.  The  assault  was  made  after  the  aide  had  left.  The  hall  doors 
were  forced  open  and  the  police  fired  indiscriminately  into  the  room. 
The  members,  many  -wounded,  drove  the  police  back  and  barricaded  the 
doors  with  settees,  only  to  have  them  forced  open  three  several  times 
and  the  firing  renewed.  There  were  reported  that  day  some  thirty- 
seven  killed  and  one  hundred  and  forty-six  wounded.  A  Congressional 
committee  of  inquiry  afterwards  declared  the  affair  to  have  been  pre- 
arranged, and  charged  that  the  state  officers  engaged  with  the  mayor 
and  chief  of  police  were  responsible  for  the  crimes  committed.  Governor 
Wells  did  not  take  any  part.  The  President  encouraged  the  assailants 
by  a  dispatch  stating  that  the  military  were  to  "  sustain  and  not  to 
obstruct  or  interfere  with  the  proceedings  of  the  court."  At  the  same 
time  General  Baird's  dispatches  were  given  to  the  Johnson  press 
without  the  knowledge  of  either  Grant  or  the  War  Department. 

Sheridan's  testimony  taken  by  the  Congressional  committee  will 
illustrate  his  position.  After  stating  that  he  was  not  in  the  city  on  the 
30th  and  did  not  arrive  till  the  evening  of  the  3ist ;  that  he  was  at  the 
mouth  of  the  river  when  he  received  dispatches  announcing  the  riot, 
and  also  stating  that  there  still  remained  great  excitement  and  that 


THE  LIFE  OF 

martial  law  had  been  proclaimed,  he  proceeded  to  testify  that  "I 
found  a  very  high  state  of  excitenient,  and  a  very  large  proportion  of 
the  people  were  armed.  There  had  been  quite  an  extensive  sale  from 
the  different  stores  having  arms  for  sale,  and  this  continued  . 
until  I  finally  closed  the  stores.  I  found  quite  a  state  of  excitement  among 
the  freedmen  of  the  city,  but  no  desire  on  their  part  to  create  a  disturb- 
ance." He  then  gave  in  detail  the  measures  taken  to  suppress  disor- 
der and  quiet  alarms.  He  was  in  command,  by  the  President's  order, 
of  Texas,  Florida,  and  Louisiana,  each  of  which  states  was  a  sepa- 
rate department.  To  General  Baird,  in  command  of  Louisiana,  Sheri- 
dan testified  that  the  orders  given,  were  : 

"  That  he  was  not  to  allow  the  military  to  become  involved  in  any 
political  discussion  or  matters  of  that  kind ;  that  he  was  not  to  allow 
the  military  to  be  used  for  the  support  or  objects  of  either  party,  for 
there  were  two  parties  here  (Louisiana)  bitterly  antagonistic.  The 
military  were  not  to  be  used,  except  in  case  of  a  breach  of  the  peace, 
in  which  case  I  considered  the  condition  of  the  country  to  be  such 
that  the  life  and  property  of  the  citizens  depended  upon  the  military, 
and  not  upon  the  civil  authority.  He  was,  therefore,  if  necessity  re- 
quired, to  use  the  military  to  preserve  the  peace,  but  not  to  allow  him- 
self to  be  involved  unless  the  peace  was  broken." 

Certainly,  these  are  orders  that  show  a  sensitive  regard,  all  things 
considered,  to  the  forms  as  well  as  the  spirit  of  civil  law.  General 
Sheridan  considered  the  police  as  quite  competent  to  have  maintained 
peace  on  the  day  of  the  riot.  Twenty  policemen,  he  declared,  would 
have  "  been  sufficient  to  have  arrested  the  convention  without  violence." 
He  further  testified  that  there  could  have  been  no  object,  except  "to 
have  prevented  the  police  perpetrating  a  massacre,"  to  have  had  the 
military  present  when  the  convention  met.  In  a  dispatch  to  General 
Grant,  Sheridan  expressed  his  opinion,  under  date  of  August  2d,  as 
follows  : 

"  The  more  information  I  obtain  of  the  affair  of  the  3oth  in  this 
city,  the  more  revolting  it  becomes.  It  was  no  riot.  It  was  an  absolute 
massacre  by  the  police,  which  was  not  excelled  in  murderous  cruelty 
by  that  of  Fort  Pillow.  It  was  a  murder  which  the  mayor  and  police 
of  this  city  perpetrated  without  the  shadow  of  a  necessity.  Further- 
more, I  believe  it  was  premeditated,  and  every  indication  points  to  this." 

To  the  Congressional  committee  he  declared  "  I  have  no  reason  to 
change  the  statement  I  made."  This  is  plain  speaking — direct  character- 
ization ;  but  that  was  Sheridan's  way,  no  matter  whom  he  offended  or 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

what  hostility  was  raised  in  his  path.  His  dispatch  of  the  ist  of  August, 
1866,  to  General  Grant  still  further  emphasizes  his  clear  vision  and 
direct  methods,  as  well  as  presents  a  lucid  summing  up  of  the  atrocious 
crimes,  which,  under  raging  political  passions,  had  been  so  horribly 
committed  : 

NEW  ORLEANS,  August  i,  1866. 
General: 

You  are  doubtless  aware  of  the  serious  riot  which  occurred  *in  this 
city  on  the  3Oth.  A  political  body,  styling  itself  the  convention  of 
1864,  met  on  the  3oth,  as  it  is  alleged,  for  the  purpose  of  remodelling 
the  present  constitution  of  the  state.  The  leaders  were  political  agita- 
tors and  revolutionary  men,  and  the  action  of  the  convention  was  liable 
to  produce  breaches  of  the  public  peace. 

I  had  made  up  my  mind  to  arrest  the  head  men,  if  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  convention  were  calculated  to  disturb  the  tranquility  'of  the 
department,  but  I  had  no  cause  for  action  until  they  committed  the  overt 
act.  In  the  meantime,  official  duty  called  me  to  Texas,  and  the  mayor 
of  the  city,  during  my  absence,  suppressed  the  convention  by  the  use 
of  the  police  force,  and  in  so  doing  attacked  the  members  of  the  con- 
vention and  a  party  of  200  negroes,  and  with  fire-arms,  clubs,  and 
knives,  in  a  manner  so  unnecessary  and  atrocious,  as  to  compel  me  to 
declare  that  it  was  murder.  ...  I  believe  that  the  sentiment  of 
the  general  community  is  great  regret  at  this  unnecessary  cruelty,  and 
the  police  could  have  made  any  arrests  they  saw  fit  without  sacrificing 
lives. 

P.  H.   SHERIDAN, 
Major-  General  Commanding. 

All  of  this  dispatch,  showing  the  character  of  the  riot,  when  given 
out  at  the  White  House  to  a  favorite  correspondent,  was  suppressed 
and  withheld.  General  Sheridan's  positive  course  and  testimony  did 
not  please  Mr.  Johnson  any  more  than  it  did  those  whom  he  forcibly 
and  justly  stigmatized  as  "  murderers,"  and  as  willing  participants  in  an 
unwarranted  massacre. 

The  story  of  the  New  Orleans  massacre,  and  the  report  thereon  by 
the  Shellabarger  committee,  as  well  as  the  positive  denunciation  of  it 
to  which  Sheridan  gave  utterance,  had  the  effect  in  Congress,  after  a 
winter  of  most  remarkable  discussion,  of  bringing  about  the  passage  ot 
the  original  reconstruction  act,  in  which  the  ex-Confederate  States  were 
by  its  terms  divided  into  five  military  districts,  the  commanders  of 
which  were  to  direct  and  enforce  the  provisions  of  the  act.  Under  it 
a  registration  of  voters  was  to  be  had,  the  freedmen  being  made  citi- 
zens and  voters  by  its  terms.  All  who  had  held  office  and  sworn 
allegiance  to  the  United  States  before  they  entered  the  rebellion  in 


THE  LIFE  OF 

favor  of  the  Confederacy  were  to  be  excluded  from  the  registration. 
The  military  commanders  were  t&x  have  the  power  to  remove  all  de 
facto  civil  officials  who  created  disorder,  refused  to  obey,  or  impeded 
the  reconstruction  acts.  The  genesis  of  this  law  was  found  in  an  act 
of  1864,  by  which  the  President  was  authorized  to  appoint  a  provisional 
governor  for  any  state  in  rebellion,  to  have  the  rank  of  a  brigadier- 
general,  when  he  should  deem  it  necessary.  Judge  Shellabarger  for 
the  New  Orleans  committee,  had  offered  a  bill  for  the  provisional  gov- 
ernment of  Louisiana.  This  was  made  over  into  a  general  bill.  The 
long  debate  arose  over  the  extension  of  suffrage  to  the  negro,  the  put- 
ting of  Southern  States  under  long  probation,  with  provisional  govern- 
ments, or  the  speedy  doing  away  of  the  ad  interim  conditions.  The 
same  act  required  that  these  states  before  being  admitted  to  Congres- 
sional representation,  should  exhibit  clean  bills  of  political  health,  in 
the  form  of  constitutions  prohibiting  secession,  declaring  the  Union  per- 
manent, enacting  full  political  and  civil  rights  for  the  colored  people, 
providing  free  schools,  and  forbidding  payment  of  any  rebel  debts.  A 
registration  was  to  be  taken  immediately,  and  the  first  vote  had  was  to 
be  in  each  state  for  or  against  a  state  constitutional  convention. 

These  statements  illustrate  broadly  the  distinctions  between  the 
President's  "restoration"  and  the  "reconstruction"  of  Congress. 
Neither  policy  recognized  the  destructibility  of  any  state,  but  that  of 
Congress  was  framed  upon  the  constitutional  duty  of  seeing  that  each 
state  was  possessed  with  a  "  republican  form  of  government."  Con- 
gress exercised  the  right  of  saying  what  was  such  a  form.  The  Presi- 
dent attempted  to  "  restore  "  without  any  guarantee  whatever.  After 
four  years  of  armed  rebellion  those  who  participated  therein  wished  to 
walk  in  and  take  possession  of  their  old  seats.  An  act  of  war  having 
emancipated,  they  could  not  directly  repossess  their  old  chattels,  but 
they  sought  to  control  them  for  their  own  advantage,  indirectly,  at  least. 
It  was  no  wonder  that  true  soldiers  like  Grant,  Sherman,  Sheridan,  and 
Thomas,  with  others,  should  at  once  range  themselves  with  Congress. 

General  Sheridan  was  appointed  on  the  28th  of  March,  1867, 
military  commander  of  the  Fifth  Reconstruction  District,  consisting  of 
the  states  of  Louisiana  and  Texas.  The  latter  had  an  appointee  of 
Mr.  Johnson,  as  provisional  governor  —  Mr.  Throckmorton,  Louis- 
iana was  still  organized  under  the  constitution  of  1864,  and  J.  Madison 
Wells  was  serving  as  governor.  There  was  no  uncertainty  in  General 
Sheridan's  order  assuming  command.  He  declared  the  law  would  be 
executed  without  fear  or  favor,  but  pending  that,  no  one  would  be  removed 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  jj9 

from  office  except  for  cause,  as  already  stated.  Next  day,  March  29th, 
not  having  forgotten  the  victims  of  the  Mechanics  Hall  massacre, 
General  Sheridan,  by  order,  removed  from  office  Judge  E.  Abell  of  the 
criminal  court,  Andrew  S.  Herron,  Attorney-General,  and  J.  T. 
Munroe,  Mayor  of  New  Orleans.  The  first  was  charged  with  using 
his  court  to  bring  about  the  massacre  by  making  it  appear  that  no  one 
would  be  tried  therein  for  the  deeds  done  in  it.  The  second  was 
accused  of  trying  to  punish  the  victims,  not  the  murderers,  and  the 
last  was  charged  with  practically  inciting  the  massacre. 

This  vigorous  action  was  the  key-note  of  General  Sheridan's  admin- 
istration. He  issued  orders  for  registration  to  begin  May  ist  and  end 
June  3oth.  Here  came  one  of  his  earliest  collisions  with  the  President, 
who,  through  the  adjutant-general,  directed  it  be  continued  one  month 
longer.  Sheridan  announced  obedience,  but  protested  in  very  plain 
language.  He  declared  that  the  interpretation  of  the  reconstruction 
laws  by  Attorney-General  Stanberry  was  "  a  precipitate  opening  of  a 
broad,  macadamized  road  to  perjury,"  and  asked  Grant  plainly  if  he 
should  obey  them.  As  they  were  not  promulgated  in  the  forms 
required  by  army  regulations  and  military  law,  General  Grant  told 
Sheridan  to  follow  his  own  interpretation.  Shortly  after,  Congress 
passed  a  supplementary  act  placing  reconstruction  wholly  under  Gen- 
eral Grant's  direction,  and  requiring  military  commanders  to  follow 
their  own  interpretations  of  said  laws. 

These  things  did  not  make  the  friction  less,  but  more.  Sheridan 
kept  on  his  own  way,  however.  A  notable  act  of  his  administration 
was  the  removal  of  Governor  Throckmorton.  One  of  his  most  positive 
acts,  making  an  amusing  episode  in  the  dreary  virulence  of  political 
violence  and  crime,  was  that  of  his  summary  removal  of  Governor 
Wells  from  his  office. 

In  the  winter  preceding,  the  so-called  state  legislature  passed  a 
bill  for  repairing  the  levees  and  providing  for  issuing  bonds  to  the 
amount  of  $4,000,000.  Afterwards  the  governor  and  legislature  quar- 
reled, evidently  as  to  their  shares  of  the  plunder.  Sheridan  stopped 
that  summarily,  by  dismissing  both  from  any  control,  and  appointing  a 
commission  himself  to  execute  the  law.  The  Secretary  of  War  afterwards 
(June  3d)  suspended  the  commission  and  ordered  Sheridan  to  dismiss 
Governor  Wells.  The  office  was  offered  to  a  most  estimable  and  able 
Louisiana  lawyer,  then  residing  in  Washington,  Mr.  Thomas  J.  Durant. 
He  declined,  and  Benjamin  J.  Flanders  accepted  the  appointment. 


340  THE  LIFE  OF 

Wells  declined  to  vacate,  and  at  last  Sheridan  growing  disgusted,  sent 
the  following  very  unequivocal  and"  contemptuous  order  : 

HEADQUARTERS  FIFTH  MILITARY  DISTRICT,  ) 
NEW  ORLEANS,  June  7,  1867.  j 

Sir: 

General  Flanders  has  just  informed  me  that  he  has  made  an  official 
demand  on  you  for  the  records  of  the  office  which  you  have  hitherto 
held  as  governor  of  Louisiana,  and  that  you  have  declined  to  turn  them 
over  to  him,  disputing  the  right  to  remove  from  office  by  me,  which 
right  you  have  acknowledged  and  urged  upon  me  up  to  the  time  of 
your  removal.  I  therefore  send  Brevet  Brigadier-GeVieral  James  W. 
Forsyth,  of  my  staff,  to  notify  you  he  is  sent  by  me  to  eject  you  from 
the  governor's  room  forcibly,  unless  you  consider  this  notification  as 
equivalent  to  ejection. 

This  same  Governor  Wells  Sheridan  declared  to  be  "  a  political 
trickster  .and  a  dishonest  man."  He  was  full,  he  said,  of  "subterfuge 
and  political  chicanery."  In  these  remarks  the  soldier  was  unquestion- 
ably right.  His  dispatches,  letters,  and  reports  of  this  period  afford 
the  raciest  of  reading.  He  minced  no  words,  and  met  every  accusation 
or  attack  in  the  most  positive  manner.  It  was  the  hot,  ugly,  murderous 
period  of  the  Ku-Klux  Klan  and  of  the  beginnings  of  the  White  League 
conspiracy  and  its  tragedies.  All  these  acts  and  proceedings  Sheridan 
roundly  denounced,  and  he  stung  their  supporters  in  Louisiana  and 
Texas,  whom  he  declared  in  a  famous  letter  to  have  murdered  3,500 
citizens  because  of  differences  of  political  opinion  and  of  color.  He 
denounced  them  as  "  political  banditti,"  and  asked  for  authority  to  deal 
with  them  as  such.  General  Sheridan  conducted  the  first  registration, 
and  supervised  the  first  election  under  the  reconstruction  acts  in  Louis- 
iana and  Texas.  In  Louisiana  the  registration  aggregated  127,639,  of 
whom  82,907  were  the  new  colored  voters.  At  the  election  for  or 
against  a  constitutional  convention,  75,083  votes  were  cast  for,  104,006 
against.  It  has  been  estimated  that  40,000  whites  were  disfranchised  in 
that  state  alone,  but  this  is  a  greatly  exaggerated  statement.  On  the  ist 
of  August,  1867,  Sheridan  removed  the  aldermen  and  other  New  Or- 
leans officials  for  impeding  reconstruction,  and  on  the  1 7th  the  President 
relieved  him.  In  the  final  report  of  his  operations  in  the  Fifth  Military 
District,  General  Sheridan  declared  that  the  difficult  situation  in  which 
he  had  been  placed  had  been  rendered  more  difficult  by  the  open  sym- 
pathies the  President  expressed  towards  those  who  had  been  removed. 
He  added  significantly  :  "  I  have  been  charged  by  the  highest  authority 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

of  the  Nation  with  being  tyrannical  and  a  partisan,  and  I  am  not  afraid 
to  say  that  when  such  charges  are  made  against  me,  I  feel  in  my  heart 
they  are  untruthful." 

He  did  not  return  to  New  Orleans  until  1875,  when  the  operations 
of  the  White  League  were  dangerous  and  murderous  enough  to  induce 
President  Grant  to  send  Sheridan  down  there.  His  presence  was 
enough  to  cause  a  sullen  submission  at  least.  It  was,  taken  altogether, 
a  strange  chapter  in  a  soldier's  career.  The  needs  of  the  hour  proved 
him  capable,  and  time  has  certainly  justified  both  his  motives  and  his 
judgment. 

From  this  date  onward,  until  his  death,  Sheridan  remained  clear  of 
all  political  entanglements.  His  position  in  the  army  made  this  the 
only  proper  course,  if  policy  alone  had  guided  his  actions,  but  it  was 
also  the  course  which  his  own  convictions  of  duty  dictated.  No  one 
who  could  have  had  the  right  to  know  of  General  Sheridan's  opinions 
on  public  affairs,  would  have  long  been  in  doubt  of  his  personal  atti- 
tude towards  them  and  the  party  divisions  into  which  they  were  neces- 
sarily divided.  He  was,  like  Grant  and  Sherman,  in  sympathy  with 
the  Republican  party,  in  its  historic  attitude  towards  the  Union,  and  in 
its  relations  to  the  economic  problems  that  are  a  part  of  its  principles, 
purposes,  and  policy.  Of  this  there  can  be  no  question. 

But  General  Sheridan  was  no  politician.  As  an  American  citizen 
he  held  sternly  to  his  convictions  of  public  duty.  As  a  soldier  he  was 
honorably  and  properly  a  non-partisan,  serving  the  whole  people 
whose  defender  he  was,  and  keeping  true  watch  and  ward  over  all  in- 
terests intrusted  to  him.  But  he  always  felt  keenly  over  the  reconstruc- 
tion period  and  the  severe  responsibilities  which  it  thrust  upon  him  in 
larger  degree  than  on  any  other  one  of  the  soldiers  who  were  called  to 
the  execution  of  trusts  so  repugnant  to  the  general  cast  of  a  soldier's  life 
and  duty.  He  felt  then  that  he  was  right  in  the  course  he  had  pur- 
sued. He  knew  afterwards  that  results  fullv  vindicated  his  acts. 


GEN.  WILLIAM  T.  SHERMAN, 


SHERIDAN'S  PREDECESSOR   AS    GENERAL   OF   THE  ARMY  —  HERO   OF   THE   MARCH   TO   THE   SEA, 
AND  ONE   OF   THE    THREE   GREAT   CAPTAINS   UNDER   WHOM    THE   WAR   WAS 
BROUGHT    TO    A   SUCCESSFUL   CLOSE. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 


IN  COMMAND  AT  FORT  LEAVENWORTH 
AND  CHICAGO.  • 

COMMANDING  THE  DEPARTMENT  OF  MISSOURI  —  INDIAN  WARS  AND  DISTURB- 
ANCES—  SERIOUS  MILITARY  OPERATIONS  NECESSITATED  —  REMOVING  TRIBES 
FROM  THE  GREAT  PLAINS — CAMPAIGN  AGAINST  THE  KIOWAS,  COMANCHES, 
AND  CHEYENNES — MADE  A  LIEUTENANT-GENERAL  —  WHERE  AND  HOW  THE 
NEWS  WAS  RECEIVED  —  HEADQUARTERS  IN  CHICAGO —  VISIT  TO  EUROPE  — 
SHERIDAN  AT  SEDAN — HOB-NOBBING  WITH  BISMARCK  —  THE  GREAT  FIRE 
—  MARRIAGE  AND  REMOVAL  TO  WASHINGTON. 

MAJOR-GENERAL  SHERIDAN  was  assigned  by  the  general-in-chief, 
on  the  1 2th  of  September,  1867,  to  the  command  of  the  Department  ot 
the  Missouri.  It  was  a  grateful  relief  from  the  terrible  strain  of  recon- 
struction responsibilities,  ably  borne  though  they  were.  It  was  also  a 
command  of  considerable  military  importance,  involving  as  it  did 
heavy  conflicts  with  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  region,  as  well  as  the 
execution  of  a  policy  of  concentration  and  removal  which  was  designed 
to  clear  the  central  portion  of  our  western  region  from  the  hindrances 
to  settlement  and  railroad  progress  which  the  presence  therein  of 
strong  Indian  tribes  necessarily  created.  The  recognition  of  Sheridan 
for  this  command  was  in  the  line  of  Grant's  course  towards  him. 
Sherman  as  the  senior  and  ranking  officer,  was  relieved  largely  of 
severe  departmental  service,  and  was  then  engaged  as  a  member  of  the 
Indian  Peace  Commission  in  the  inquiries  and  negotiations  that  were 
needed  to  achieve  the  policy  indicated. 

Sheridan's  new  headquarters  were  at  Fort  Leavenworth — the  post 
which  had  become  the  most  important  in  what  might  have  been  termed 
the  frontier  West.  He  found  there  his  old  comrade  of  the  regular  army, 
and  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland,  General  Elliott,  who  suc- 
ceeded to  the  command  of  Sheridan's  old  division  on  his  transfer  to  the 
Potomac.  The  department  included  the  Indian  Territory,  Kansas, 
Colorado,  Nebraska,  and  that  portion  of  Dakota  now  known  as  the 
Territory  of  Wyoming.  This  region  was  more  or  less  disturbed  by 
Indian  hostility  when  Sheridan  took  command  at  Fort  Leavenworth. 


344  THE  LIFE  OF 

\ 

The  Indian  Territory  had  not  CjuiJ^e  settled  from  its  war  divisions, 
and  constant  watchfulness  was  needed  to  prevent  disorders  which  might 
readily  have  grown  serious.  The  great  problem  involved  in  Sheridan's 
department  administration  was  mainly  confined,  however,  to  the  terri- 
tory lying  between  the  Platte  in  Nebraska  and  the  Canadian  River  in 
the  western  portion  of  the  Indian  Territory,  and  of  the  southern  line  of 
Kansas,  further  east.  It  extended  as  far  west  as  the  Rocky  Mountains. 
In  that  region  the  Utes  were  restless,  but  not  openly  hostile. 

In  the  region  to'which  Sheridan's  main  efforts  and  operations  were 
directed  there  was  a  considerable  body  of  Indians.  In  the  Missouri 
Valley  itself  was  a  number  of  semi-civilized  tribes,  nearly  all  of 
whom  have  since  been  removed  to  the  Indian  Territory  or  become 
incorporated  in  the  general  body  politic.  In  Nebraska  were  the  Otocs 
and  other  tribal  remnants ;  in  Eastern  Kansas  were  the  Delawares, 
Kickapoos,  Shawnees,  Peorias,  Weas,  Pinkeshaws,  Osages,  Pottawat- 
omies,  and  Kaw  or  Kansas  Indians,  numbering  in  all  between  six  and 
seven  thousand  souls.  The  Nebraska  bands  were  not  removed.  About 
eighty  per  cent,  of  all  the  Kansas  Indians  have  been  removed  and  settled 
again,  where  the  semi-civilized  bodies  all  form  part  of  the  Cherokee 
nation,  so  far  as  organized  civic  action  on  their  part  is  concerned.  The 
work  of  removal  was  begun  under  Sheridan's  department  administration. 
West  of  Fort  Riley,  serious  work  was  before  him  and  the  troops  under 
his  command,  which  included  besides  regular  white  and  colored  regi- 
ments and  batteries,  at  least  two  regiments  of  Kansas  volunteers,  the 
Seventeenth  and  Eighteenth,  raised  for  Indian  service.  These  regi- 
ments were  commanded  by  veteran  soldiers,  ex-Governor  S.  J. 
Crawford,  formerly  colonel  of  the  Eighty-third,  United  States  Colored 
Troops,  and  Thomas  J.  Moonlight,  ex-colonel  of  the  Fourteenth 
Kansas  Volunteers  (cavalry),  and  now  governor  of  Wyoming  Terri- 
tory, being  the  colonels  respectively  of  these  organizations.  In  what  is 
now  known  as  Wyoming,  the  Cheyennes,  Blackfeet,  Northern  Coman- 
ches,  and  some  Sioux  bands  required  constant  watching.  In  Southwest 
Nebraska  the  Pawnees  were  restless.  But  in  Western  Kansas,  the 
Kio\vas,  Arapahoes,  Comanches,  Apaches  of  the  Plains,  and  the  Chey 
ennes,  the  latter  the  most  warlike  and  valorous  of  all  Indians  on  the 
plains,  were  openly  hostile  in  feeling,  and  from  the  outset  more  or  less 
actively  so. 

These  Indians,  the  Kiowas  especially,  during  the  last  year  of  the 
Civil  War  kept  the  feeble  frontier  settlements  in  continual  danger. 
They  were  unquestionably  influenced  in  this  hostility  by  old  traders 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

.and  "  squaw  men,"  who  were  generally  in  sympathy  with  the  South  at 
the  time.  It  is  also  known  that  the  Confederate  military  authorities 
endeavored  to  organize  their  hostility  to  the  whites  as  a  direct  menace 
to  the  Union  cause  in  that  vast  and  sparsely  protected  region.  The 
activity  of  the  Kansas,  Colorado,  and  New  Mexico  military  authorities 
prevented  these  intrigues  from  making  any  great  headway.  But  the 
infamous  affair  at  Sand  Creek,  Southern  Colorado,  where,  in  the  early 
fall  of  1864,  Colonel  Chivington  with  a  regiment  of  Colorado  loo-day 
men  attacked  and  slew  the  inmates  of  a  Kiowa  camp  under  Black  Kettle, 
an  Indian  chief  who  had  always  been  esteemed  by  frontiers-men  as 
friendly  to  the  whites,  caused  a  general  irruption  of  this  tribe  and  the 
other  Indians  of  the  plains  against  the  settlers  of  Western  Kansas,  in 
September  and  October  of  that  year.  The  raiders  were  met  and  driven 
back  by  a  force  under  General  J.  G.  Blunt.  Next  year  they  were 
checked  by  volunteers  and  regulars  under  Crawford,  Moonlight,  Elliott, 
and  others.  General  Hancock  was  in  command  and  had  a  severe 
fight  in  1866,  before  he  was  ordered  by  President  Johnson  to  supersede 
Sheridan.  When  the  latter  assumed  his  new  command,  as  Grant  had 
foreseen,  he  found  his  work  already  cut  out  for  him. 

The  Indians  against  whom  he  had  especially  to  direct  his  forces 
numbered  in  all  about  eleven  thousand  persons.  The  Comanches 
were  a  warlike  tribe,  who  generally  roamed  over  the  head  waters  of  the 
Red  and  Canadian  rivers  and  across  the  staked  plains  of  Texas  as  far 
south  as  the  Rio  Grande.  The  Kiowas  and  Arapahoes  hunted  and 
lived  about  the  Upper  Arkansas  and  as  far  north  as  the  Smoky  Hill 
branch  of  the  Kansas  River.  The  Cheyennes  roamed  and  hunted 
through  the  whole  of  Kansas,  west  of  the  looth  meridian  of  west  longi- 
tude. They  were  unyielding  foes,  and  the  bands  known  as  Dog- 
Soldiers,  then  under  Mo-ke-ta-ve-tah,0had  not  been  at  peace  for  at  least 
twenty  years  preceding  Sheridan's  operations.  The  last  terrible  drub- 
bing they  received  before  the  new  commander  annihilated  them,  was 
given  by  the  gallant  Colonel  Summer,  who  with  the  Fifth  Cavalry  in  the 
late  summer  of  1857  took  up  their  trail  from  Fort  Riley,  and  never  left 
it  until  he  had  reached  their  camp  and  defeated  them  in  a  terrible  fight, 
utterly  routing  and  killing  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  tribe.  During 
the  war  they  recovered  their  old  strength  and  spirit,  and  once  more  be- 
came a  terror  to  the  growing  settlements.  The  progress  of  railroad  con- 
struction increased  their  hostility,  and  necessitated  increasing  vigilance 
and  activity  against  them.  When  the  Civil  War  closed  there  was  not 
.a  single  mile  of  railroad  north  of  Jefferson  City  and  west  of  the  Missouri 


THE  LIFE  OF 

River  :  certainly,  not  outside  of  California.  When  General  Sheridan  was- 
transferred  to  Leavenworth,  the  Unio»and  Central  Pacific  roads  were- 
nearing  their  junction  in  Utah,  and  hundreds  of  miles  of  other  roads,  as 
the  Kansas  Pacific,  Pacific,  and  others,  were  already  in  local  operation. 
The  duties  of  a  military  commander  in  a  region  so  active  with  the  van- 
guard forces  of  civilization,  and  so  hostile  with  the  expiring  assaults  of 
aboriginal  savagery,  were  of  the  most  diverse  and  exacting  character. 
Railroad  construction  at  times  and  in  part,  assumed  a  semi-military 
character.  Their  advance  also  brought  together  the  criminal  scum  of 
our  western  life,  and  trains  had  continually  to  be  protected  against  it  by 
military  detachments.  All  this  work  was  in  addition  to  the  compre- 
hensive and  exacting  demands  that  were  imposed  by  Indian  hostility  and 
subjugation.  As  in  the  work  of  reconstruction,  Sheridan's  new  duties 
involved  not  only  the  subduing  of  disorder  and  the  prevention  of  out- 
breaks, but  it  required  that  the  work  to  be  done  should  proceed  upon 
plans  that  looked  to  a  final  solution  of  the  whole  question  at  issue.  It 
was  the  necessity  of  J:he  situation  that  the  Indians  must  be  wholly 
removed  from  the  Plains  region. 

The  Indian  outbreak  and  subsequent  campaign  of  1868-9,  gave  the- 
untiring  department  commander  the  opportunity  to  accomplish  in  full 
the  policy  of  removal,  or  at  least  to  compel  Indian  submission  thereto,, 
and  the  easy  inauguration,  therefore,  of  steps  to  complete  this  purpose. 

In  October,  1868,  the  valleys  of  the  Smoky  Hill,.  Solomon,  and' 
Saline  rivers  were  the  scenes  of  a  series  of  Indian  atrocities  as  hor- 
rible as  any  that  have  marked  the  bloody  progress  of  our  frontier 
growth.  The  Cheyenne  Dog  soldiers  were  especially  fiendish,,  and 
made  the  Saline  and  Solomon  valleys  the  scenes  of  outrages  too  terri- 
ble to  narrate.  Sheridan  was  at  Fort  Leavenworth.  Before  the  day 
had  closed  on  which  the  news  was  received,  he  was  with  his- staff  on 
the  road  to  Fort  Hays,  upon  the  Smoky  Hill  River,,  and  the  then  ter- 
minus of  the  Kansas  Pacific,  to  which  a  rapid  concentration  and  forward- 
ing of  troops  was  ordered.  It  was  the  best  place  for  a  movement 
against  the  savages,  who  were  struck  heavily  on  the  flank  as  they 
rapidly  fell  back.  A  winter  campaign  was  inaugurated  at  once,  and 
pushed  under  his  own  command  with  the  same  untiring  and  remorse- 
less activity  that  was  exhibited  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley  in  the  over- 
throw and  pursuit  of  Early.  The  campaign  proved  a  bewildering  one 
to  the  Indian  enemy.  It  was  a  surprise  to  the  settlers.  On  arrival  at 
Fort  Hays,  Sheridan  sent  out  strong  detachments  of  cavalry  in  all  the 
directions  required  for  pursuit,  with  orders  to  follow:  to  the  utmost 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  347 

He  then  massed  a  considerable  force,  and  formed  depots  of  supplies  at 
various  points.  All  this  was  done  with  such  great  celerity  that  it 
remains  among  the  older  settlers  and  frontiers-men  a  subject  of  admira- 
tion to  this  day.  They  had  never  seen  before  the  spirit  of  a  great 
soldier  carried  into  the  work  of  protecting  their  homes  and  ranches,, 
united  as  well,  with  that  of  permanently  subduing  a  savage  foe. 

The  severe  task  Sheridan  set  himself  was  magnificently  performed. 
To  those  who  criticise  only  from  the  stand-point  of  war  among  civilized 
peoples  it  may  seem  that  the  overthrow  of  not  over  ten  thousand  half- 
naked  and  half-armed  Indians,  men,  women,  and  children,  was  an  easy 
piece  of  work  in  comparison  with  what  our  soldier  had  previously 
performed.  This  would  not  be  a  correct  judgment.  All  things  con- 
sidered, the  warrior  Indians  were  more  than  equal,  at  first,  to  double 
their  number  of  ordinary  troopers.  This  advantage  was  lost  to  them 
under  the  untiring  pursuit  that  Sheridan  instituted  —  such  a  pursuit  as 
must  always  be  destructive  to  aborigines,  whose  staying  qualities  are 
never  as  great  as  those  civilized  troops  develop,  especially  such  hardy 
troopers  as  Sheridan  commanded.  In  that  memorable  winter  cam- 
paign the  Indians  were  beaten  in  all  engagements,  followed  to  all  their 
lairs,  and  routed  in  every  direction.  Their  villages  were  taken  and 
destroyed.  Their  ponies  were  in  large  part  killed  or  captured.  Their 
supplies  were  cut  off.  Hundreds  of  their  fighting  men  were  slain. 
The  unyielding  Cheyenne  Dog  soldiers,  with  their  chief,  were  actually 
annihilated,  only  one  warrior,  a  minor  chief,  escaping.  Their  women 
and  children  were  afterwards  divided  among  other  bands  —  so  that  the 
formidable  Dog  soldiers  were  literally  "wiped  out." 

Before  the  campaign  closed  Sheridan  received  the  surrender  of 
nearly  ten  thousand  Indians,  whom  he  placed  under  strong  military 
guard  on  the  territory  they  are  still  occupying  in  the  upper  valleys  of 
the  Wichita  River,  near  the  mouths  of  Medicene  and  Cache  creeks, 
and  within  the  limits  of  the  Indian  Territory.  The  Cherokee  Nation 
had  sold  this  section  to  the  United  States  government  by  the  treaty 
of  1866,  for  the  express  purpose  of  concentrating  and  settling  thereon 
these  and  other  tribes  of  a  similar  character.  Sheridan's  captives  in- 
cluded a  large  proportion  of  the  tribes  by  whom  the  proposed  occupa- 
tion was  to  be  made.  They  are  still  settled  there,  and  are  now  prosr 
perous  communities  of  cattle  raisers  and  farmers. 

Ulysses  S.  Grant  had  been  elected  President  of  the  United  States. 
The  close  of  Sheridan's  successful  Indian  campaign  was  almost  cotern- 
poraneous  with  the  inauguration  of  the  new  President.  The  influence 


THE  LIFE  OF 

of  Grant  had  already  secured  from  Congress  the  legislative  power  neces- 
sary to  enable  him  to  make  the  first.appointments  given  in  his  new  po- 
sition. The  commission  of  general  held  by  Grant  expired  with  his 
resignation  thereof.  Sherman  had  been  named,  as  was  Grant  when 
made  general,  in  the  acts  which  authorized  his  appointment  as  lieu- 
tenant-general. Legislation  was  therefore  necessary.  It  had  been  ob- 
tained. Grant's  first  act  as  President  after  taking  the  oath  of  office, 
reading  his  inaugural,  and  calling  the  Senate  together  in  executive  ses- 
•sion,  was  to  nominate  William  Tecumseh  Sherman  as  General,  and 
Philip  Henry  Sheridan  as  Lieutenant-General  in  the  Army  of  the 
United  States.  The  nominations  were  immediately  confirmed. 

Sheridan,  two  thousand  miles  westward,  was  moving  east  with  his 
wearied  escort^  consisting  of  a  detachment  of  the  Tenth  Cavalry, 
accompanied  by  Colonels  Lebo  and  Schuyler  Crosby,  Major  J.  W. 
Clous,  and  Colonel  McGonigle.  .  They  were  returning  to  Fort  Hays. 
Between  the  middle  of  February  and  March  6th,  a  march  of  over  three 
hundred  miles  had  been  made.  Sheridan  had  left  the  camp  of  the  cap- 
tured Indians,  on  the  head  waters  of  the  Wichita  River,  after  a  remark- 
able talk  to  such  of  their  head  men  as  were  left,  in  which  he  had 
firmly,  but  without  anger  or  the  arrogance  of  power,  told  them  what 
they  could  expect  from  the  "Great  Father."  His  little  command  was 
but  twenty  miles  from  Fort  Hays  on  the  Smoky  Hill.  The  long 
shadows  of  the  afternoon  sun  were  descending  as  a  military  courier 
was  seen  fleetly  riding  towards  the  advancing  command.  The  vedettes 
and  their  commander  were  proudly  saluted,  but  the  courier  drew  no 
rein.  It  was  evident  that  whatever  was  the  news,  he  was  proud  of 
facing  its  carrier.  But  in  his  haste  he  rode  by  the  general,  and  an 
orderly  was  sent  to  inform  the  rider  that  he  was  at  the  head  of  the  little 
column.  Turning  his  horse  swiftly,  the  messenger  drew  a  yellow 
envelope  from  his  pocket,  and  rode  up  furiously,  reining  his  horse 
almost  back  upon  his  haunches,  and  standing  in  his  stirrups,  as  he 
touched  his  hat  in  a  military  salute,  exclaimed  while  handing  over  the 
dispatch  : 

"I  have  the  honor  of  saluting  the  Lieutenant-General  of  the  Army 
of  the  United  States." 

The  bronzed,  flushed  face  of  the  trooper  was  all  aglow  with  pride 
and  pleasure,  as  at  once  he  became  a  rigid  and  martial  statue  "at 
attention." 

The  cry  was  heard,  and  even  before  the  gallant  little  soldier  to  whom 
the  dispatch  was  addressed  could  open  it,  the  soldiers  all,  officers  and 
men,  shouted  "To  the  Lieutenant-General ! " 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  349 

General  Sheridan's  face,  says  an  eye-witness,  was  flushed  with 
mingled  sensations  of  pride  and  emotion.  His  hand  trembled  with 
feeling  as  he  opened  the  packet.  It  was  a  telegram  from  General 
Sherman  substantially  in  these  words  : 

"  Grant  has  been  inaugurated.  He  has  just  nominated  me  for  Gen- 
eral and  you  for  Lieutenant-General." 

u  To  the  Lieutenant-General !  "  went  up  in  shouts  along  the  little 
column  of  officers  and  troopers  which  broke  the  solitudes  of  the  Smoky 
Hill ;  "  To  the  Lieutenant-General !  "  again  and  again  in  rounds  of 
cheers.  And  then  the  bugle  gave  the  order  "trot,"  and  shortly  the 
little  command  was  briskly  galloping  toward  Fort  Hays.  The  next 
day,  March  yth,  General  Sheridan,  with  two  aides,  left  for  Wash- 
ington. They  arrived  in  the  middle  of  March.  Sheridan  was  the 
recipient  of  the  most  marked  social  attention.  After  a  short  rest  he 
was  assigned  to  the  Military  Division  of  the  Missouri,  embracing  all 
the  territory  north  and  south  from  the  Gulf  to  the  British  line,  and  from 
the  Missouri  River  west  to  the  Rocky  Mountains.  His  headquarters 
were  fixed  in  Chicago.  Four  departments,  each  commanded  by  a  well- 
known  soldier,  were  included  within  this  great  division. 

One  unaccustomed  to  the  routine  of  army  life  and  administration 
would  naturally  suppose  that  the  lieutenant-general  was  now  to  have 
a  very  easy  time.  In  this,  however,  the  critic  would  be  mistaken. 
The  duties  of  an  American  army  commander,  even  in  peace,  are  exact- 
ing enough  to  fill  the  working  ambition  of  any  man  competent  to  per- 
form them.  As  already  seen,  in  the  conduct  of  the  Department  of  Mis- 
souri the  Indian  troubles  were  serious  and  absorbing.  The  conditions 
imposed  by  the  earlier  days  of  railroad  construction  and  traffic  enjoined 
serious  responsibilities  on  the  military.  Besides  these  things,  there 
were  to  be  foreseen  and  met  the  inevitable  changes  in  frontier  army 
administration  that  the  new  highways  and  the  settlements  which  accom- 
panied them  rendered  so  necessary.  Of  these  matters,  Sheridan  in  his 
new  position  was  at  the  fore.  He  prepared  him  to  live  comfortably. 
In  Chicago,  from  the  outset,  the  general  became,  for  his  personal 
qualities,  as  well  as  his  distinguished  position,  a  great  social  favorite. 
It  is  a  feeling  which  grew  with  his  years,  and  became  a  deep  admira- 
tion when,  during  the  great  fire,  he  was  able  to  perform  signal  service 
for  a  people  so  terriblly  stricken. 

But  he  had  hardly  got  his  business  office  and  personal  belongings 
into  good  shape,  when  the  thunder  of  war  came  floating  over  the 
Atlantic.  France  and  Prussia  declared  war,  and  the  latter,  sustained  by 


3jo  THE  LIFE  OF 

the  whole  of  Germany,  commenced  J^er  terribly  aggressive  war  on  her 
old  enemy.  As  customary  with  our 'government,  it  was  determined  at 
once  to  send  a  distinguished  American  officer  to  observe  the  progress 
of  the  war.  The  lieutenant-general  was  selected  to  represent  us. 
Accompanied  by  Brigadier-General  J.  W.  Forsyth,  now  colonel  of  the 
famous  Seventh  Cavalry,  United  States  Army,  which  has  been  com- 
manded since  the  Rebellion  by  Generals  Sturgis  and  Custer,  Sheridan 
sailed  for  Europe.  Forsyth  was  a  member  of  the  staff',  serving  with 
the  lieutenant-general  from  1863  till  1878,  and  rejoining  him  in  1880. 
He  received  six-months  leave  of  absence,  with  permission  to  go  beyond 
the  sea.  Like  Major-General  Schofield,  who  succeeds  to  the  duties 
•of  General  commanding  the  Army,  he  was  a  classmate  of  Sheridan's 
at  West  Point.  They  both  graduated,  however,  a  year  before  he  did, 
owing  to  the  fact  that  his  conflict  with  Cadet-Sergeant  Terrell  set  the 
little  Ohio  soldier  back  a  year  in  his  class. 

Lieutenant-General  Sheridan  was  ordered  to  Washington  on  the 
zoth  of  July,  1870.  His  orders  made  him  special  commissioner  of  the 
United  States  at  the  theatre  of  military  operations.  He  was  to  observe 
the  methods  of  the  French  and  Prussian  governments  in  the  conduct  of 
war.  On  his  return  he  was  to  make  a  report  on  the  cavalry,  infantry, 
and  artillery  of  each,  and  also  upon  the  arms,  tactics,  and  discipline  of 
each  army. 

General  Sheridan  sailed  at  once,  and  from  London  addressed  to 
both  the  French  and  Prussian  governments  a  formal  official  request 
for  permission  to  accompany  their  armies.  The  French  responded 
with  a  brusque  refusal ;  the  Germans  with  a  direct  royal  approval.  He 
is  announced  as  leaving  for  the  Continent  on  the  8th  of  August.  On 
the  1 2th  he  left  Berlin  for  Prussian  headquarters.  He  was  cheerfully 
given  all  the  facilities  needed.  He  was,  in  fact,  treated  as  a  royal 
guest  on  his  arrival  at  King  William's  headquarters  at  Pont-a-Mousson. 

Lieutenant-General  Sheridan  was  obliged  to  select  the  German 
armies  as  his  field  of  observation,  because  the  French  Emperor  refused 
to  allow  his  armies  to  be  accompanied  by  foreign  officers.  As  the 
Germans  were  the  invading  and  attacking  force,  and  also  from  the  fact 
of  their  high  reputation  for  military  science,  skill,  discipline,  drill,  and 
mechanism,  Sheridan  was  fortunate  in  his  military  hosts.  The  distin- 
guished soldier  was  received  with  the  honors  and  courtesy  due  his  rank 
and  high  reputation.  He  was  attached  as  a  guest  to  the  headquarters 
of  Prince  Bismarck,  and  was  present  as  a  critical  observer  at  the  battles 
of  Gravelock,  Beaumont,  and  Sedan,  at  the  latter  witnessing  personally 
the  surrender  of  Louis  Napoleon. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  351 

At  the  battle  of  Sedan,  Sheridan  was  on  the  field  from  the  first 
movement  at  6  A.  M.,  on  the  ist  of  September,  until  the  surrender  of 
Louis  Napoleon  at  5.15  P.  M.  The  Sedan  correspondence  of  George 
W.  Smalley,  the  well-known  journalist,  who  was  with  the  German 
Army  also,  is  replete  with  reference  to  General  Sheridan's  opinions  and 
•comments.  There  was  very  heavy  musketry  firing  at  noon.  Mr. 
Smalley  says  : 

"•  General  Sheridan,  b'y  whose  side  I  was  standing  at  the  time,  told 
me  that  he  did  not  remember  ever  to  have  heard  so  well  sustained  a 
fire  of  small  arms.  It  made  itself  heard  above  the  roar  of  the  bat- 
teries at  our  feet.  .  .  .  At  i  o'clock  the  French  batteries  on  the 
edge  of  the  wood  towards  Torcy,  and  above  it,  opened  a  vigorous  fire 
on  the  advancing  Prussian  column  of  the  Third  Corps,  whose  evident 
intention  it  was  to  storm  the  hill  northwest  of  La  Garenne,  and  so 
gain  the  key  of  the  position  on  that  side.  At  1.05  another  French 
battery  near  the  wood  opened  on  the  Prussian  columns,  which  were 
compelled  to  keep  shifting  their  ground  till  ready  for  their  final  rush  at 
the  hills,  in  order  to  avoid  offering  so  good  a  mark  to  the  French  shells. 
Shortly  after  we  saw  the  first  Prussian  skirmishers  on  the  crest  of  the 
La  Garenne  hills  above  Torcy.  They  did  not  seem  to  be  in  strength, 
and  General  Sheridan,  standing  behind  me,  exclaimed  : 

*k  *  Ah  !  the  beggars  are  too  weak  ;  they  can  never  hold  that  position 
against  all  those  French.' 

'"  The  general's  prophecy  soon  proved  correct,  for  the  French 
advanced  at  least  six  to  one,  and  the  Prussians  were  forced  to  retreat 
down  the  hill  to  seek  reinforcements  from  their  columns  which  were 
hurrying  to  their  support.  In  five  minutes  they  came  back  again,  this 
time  in  greater  force,  but  still  terribly  inferior  to  those  huge  French 
masses. 

"•  k  Good  heavens!  The  French  cuirassiers  are  going  to  charge 
them,'  cried  General  Sheridan.  And  sure  enough  the  regiment  of 
cuirassiers,  their  helmets  and  breastplates  flashing  in  the  September 
sun,  formed  in  sections  of  squadrons  and  dashed  down  on  the  scattered 
Prussian  skirmishers,  without  deigning  to  form  a  line.  Squares  are 
never  used  by  the  Prussians,  and  the  infantry  received  the  cuirassiers 
with  a  crushing  '  quick  fire  '  at  about  one  hundred  yards'  distance,  load- 
ing and  firing  with  extreme  rapidity,  and  shooting  with  unfailing  pre- 
cision into  the  dense  French  squadrons.  The  effect  was  startling. 
Over  went  horses  and  men  in  numbers,  in  masses,  in  hundreds ;  and 
the  regiment  of  proud  French  cuirassiers  went  hurriedly  back  in  dis- 


THE  LIFE  OF 

order ;  went  back  faster  than  it  came ;  went  back  scarcely  a  regiment 
in  strength,  and  not  at  all  a  regiment  i«  form. 

"The  great  object  of  the  Prussians  was  gained,  since  they  were 
not  driven  from  the  crest  of  the  hill  they  sought  to  hold. 

"  '  There  will  be  a  devil  of  a  fight  for  that  crest  before  it  is  won  or 
lost,'  said  Sheridan,  straining  his  eyes  through  his  field-glass  at  the  hill 
which  was  not  over  three  miles  from  us." 

Several  charges  of  a  similar  character  by  the  French  cavalry,  fol- 
lowed the  one  which  has  been  briefly  described,  each  ending  as  the 
first  one  did.  After  the  last  desperate  charge  of  the  French  cavalry. 
General  Sheridan  remarked  to  Mr.  Smalley  that  he  never  saw  anything 
so  reckless,  so  utterly  foolish,  as  that  last  charge.  u  It  was  sheer  mur- 
der," he  added,  emphatically. 

"At  2. 05  in  the  afternoon  the  French  totally  abandoned  the  hill 
between  Torcy  and  Sedan,  and  fell  back  on  the  faubourg  of  Caval,  just 
outside  the  ramparts  of  the  town. 

"  '  Now  the  battle  is  lost  for  the  French,'  said  General  Sheridan,  to- 
the  delight  of  the  Prussian  officers.  One  would  almost  have  imagined 
that  the  French  had  heard  his  words :  they  had  hardly  been  uttered 
when  there  came  a  lull  in  the  firing  all  along  the  line. 

"  At  6.30  the  King  received  Napoleon's  letter  of  surrender,  and  sat 
down  to  write  a  note  to  the  Emperor.  While  the  King  was  writing 
this  note,  Count  Bismarck  came  up  to  Generals  Sheridan  and  Forsyth 
and  Mr.  Smalley,  and  heartily  shook  our  hands. 

"  '  Let  me  congratulate  you  most  sincerely,  count,'  said  General 
Sheridan.  '  I  can  only  compare  the  surrender  of  Napoleon  to  that  of 
General  Lee  at  Appomattox  Court  House.'" 

General  Adam  Badeau  has  recently  caused  to  be  published  the 
following  letter,  which  for  its  frank,  unrestrained  freedom,  written  in 
the  confidence  of  personal  friendship,  possesses  a  peculiar  value  in 
this  relation  : 

RHEIMS,  FRANCE,  Sept.  13,  1870. 

MY  DEAR  GENERAL  GRANT  :  The  capture  of  the  Emperor  Napoleon 
and  McMahon's  army  at  Sedan  on  the  ist  of  September  has  thrown. 
France  into  a  chaos  which  even  embarrasses  the  Prussian  authorities.. 
It  seems  to  a  quiet  observer  as  though  Prussia  had  done  too  much.. 
Whom  to  negotiate  with,  whom  to  hold  responsible  in  the  final  settle- 
ment, are  becoming  grave  questions,  and  one  cannot  see  what  will  be 
the  result.  I  was  present  at  the  battles  of  Beaumont,  Gravelotte,  and 
Sedan,  and  have  had  my  imagination  clipped,  in  seeing  these  battles-. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  j$j 

of  many  of  the  errors  it  had  run  into  in  its  conception  of  what  might 
be  expected  of  the  trained  troops  of  Europe. 

There  was  about  the  same  percentage  of  sneaks  or  runaways, 
and  the  general  conditions  of  the  battles  were  about  the  same  as  our 
own.  One  thing  was  especially  noticeable  —  the  scattered  condition  of 
the  men  in  going  into  battle,  and  their  scattered  condition  while  en- 
gaged. At  Gravelotte,  Beaumont,  and  Sedan,  the  men  engaged  on 
both  sides  were  so  scattered  that  it  looked  like  thousands  of  men  en- 
gaged in  a  deadly  skirmish  without  any  regard  to  lines  or  formation. 
These  battles  were  of  this  style  of  fighting,  commencing  at  long  range, 
and  might  be  called  progressive  fighting,  closing  at  night  by  the  French 
always  giving  up  their  position  or  being  driven  from  it  in  this  way  by 
the  Prussians.  The  latter  had  their  own  strategy  up  to  the  Moselle, 
and  it  was  good  and  successful.  After  that  river  was  reached,  the 
French  made  the  strategy  for  the  Prussians,  and  it  was  more  successful 
than  their  own.  The  Prussian  soldiers  are  very  good,  brave  fellows, 
all  young,  scarcely  a  man  over  twenty-seven  in  the  first  levies.  They 
had  gone  into  each  battle  with  the  determination  to  win.  It  is  especially 
noticeable,  also,  that  the  Prussians  have  attacked  the  French  wherever 
they  have  found  them,  let  the  numbers  be  great  or  small,  and,  so  far  as 
I  have  been  able  to  see,  though  the  grand  tactics  of  bringing  on  the 
engagements  have  been  good,  yet  the  battles  have  been  won  by  the 
good  square  fighting  of  the  men  and  junior  officers.  It  is  true  the 
Prussians  have  beejn  two  to  one,  except  in  one  of  the  battles  before 
Metz  —  that  of  the  i6th  of  August;  still  the  French  have  had  the  ad- 
vantage of  very  strong  positions. 

Generally  speaking,  the  French  soldiers  have  not  fought  well. 
It  may  be  because  the  poor  fellows  had  been  discouraged  by  the  trap 
into  which  their  commander  had  led  them,  but  I  must  confess  to  having 
seen  some  of  the  "tallest"  running  at  Sedan  I  have  ever  witnessed, 
especially  on  the  left  of  the  French  position — all  attempts  to  make  the 
men  stand  seemed  to  be  unavailing.  So  disgraceful  was  this  that  it  caused 
the  French  cavalry  to  make  three  or  four  gallant  but  foolish  charges,  as 
if  it  were  to  show  that  there  was  at  least  some  manhood  left  in  a 
mounted  French  soldier. 

I  am  disgusted  ;  all  my  boyhood's  fancies  of  the  soldiers  of  the 
great  Napoleon  have  been  dissipated,  or  else  the  soldiers  of  the  "  Little 
Corporal "  have  lost  their  elan  in  the  pampered  parade  soldiers  of  the 
4 'Man  of  Destiny." 

The    Prussians   will    settle,   I  think,   by   making  the   line   of  the 

23 


3$4  THE  LIFE  OF 

Moselle  the  German  line,  taking  in  Metz  and  Strasburg,  and  the  ex- 
penses of  the  war. 

I  have  been  most  kindly  received  by  the  King  and  Count  Bis- 
marck and  all  the  officers  at  the  headquarters  of  the  Prussian  Army  — 
have  seen  much  of  great  interest,  and  especially  have  been  able  to 
observe  the  difference  between  the  European  battles  and  those  of  our 
own  country.  I  have  not  found  the  difference  very  great,  but  that 
difference  is  to  the  credit  of  our  own  country.  There  is  nothing  to  be 
learned  here  professionally,  and  it  is  a  satisfaction  to  learn  that  such  is 
the  case. 

There  is  much,  however,  which  Europeans  could  learn  from  us, 
—  the  use  of  rifle-pits  —  the  use  of  cavalry,  which  they  do  not  use  well ; 
for  instance,  there  is  a  line  of  communication  from  here  to  Germany 
exposed  to  the  whole  of  the  south  of  France,  with  scarcely  a  soldier  on 
the  whole  line,  and  it  has  never  been  touched.  There  are  a  hundred 
things  in  which  they  are  behind  us.  The  staff  departments  are  poorly 
organized;  the  quartermaster's  department  very  wretched,  etc.,  etc. 
Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

P.  H.  SHERIDAN,  Lieutenant- General. 

P.  S. — We  go  to-morrow  with  the  headquarters  of  the  King  to 
a  point  about  twenty  miles  from  Paris.  P.  H.  S. 

Letters  received  at  Chicago  from  General  Sheridan  during  this 
period,  and  while  he  was  still  at  Prussian  headquarters,  stated  that  he 
had  witnessed  all  the  battles  from  the  beginning  of  the  war,  and  that 
he  was  present  at  the  surrender  of  Napoleon.  General  Sheridan 
reported  that  the  Prussian  Army  is  well  organized  and  equipped ;  but 
he  expressed  a  positive  opinion  that  neither  the  French  nor  the  Prus- 
sian soldiers  are  equal  to  our  own  in  point  of  intelligence,  skill,  and 
arms.  Sheridan  was  with  Bismarck  when  the  great  statesman  sprang 
from  his  carriage  with  a  pistol  in  each  hand  and  cleared  the  streets  of 
the  village  of  Garge.  He  was  also  with  him  when  he  dismounted 
abreast  of  the  carriage  of  the  defeated  Napoleon.  Sheridan's  descrip- 
tions of  these  events  are  very  interesting  and  graphic.  He  says  Bis- 
marck saluted  the  Emperor  "  in  a  quick,  brusque  way  which  seemed  to 
startle  him." 

Sheridan  accompanied  the  German  armies  to  Paris,  witnessing  all 
the  operations  of  the  siege.  General  Forsyth  is  reported  as  saying  that 
"  his  fame  had  reached  France  in  advance,  where  the  people,  from  his 
vim  and  dash,  had  already  likened  him  to  and  placed  him  on  the  same 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  355 

high  pedestal  of  fame  as  the  great  Corsican.  When  they  saw  him  (for 
the  general  had  a  truly  Napoleonic  head)  they  nearly  went  wild  with 
enthusiasm."  It  is  quite  safe  to  assert  that  the  German  Army  had  no 
closer  or  keener  critic,  nor  was  he  in  any  way  unobservant  of  the  fine 
qualities  of  the  French  soldiers.  He  was  reported  at  the  time  by  a 
newspaper  correspondent  as  expressing  great  admiration  of  the  manner 
in  which,  under  Gambetta's  dictatorship  at  Tours,  the  French  people 
and  army  showed  their  recuperative  power.  It  is  also  recorded  that 
he  declared  that  in  spite  of  the  magnificent  machinery  and  administra- 
tive perfection  of  the  German  Army,  they  would  never  know  what  real 
fighting  was  until  they  should  meet  in  a  popular  war,  American  or 
British  soldiers.  General  Butterfield  recalls  being  in  Italy  with  Gen- 
eral Sheridan  after  the  Franco-Prussian  War  had  closed  its  fateful  prog- 
ress. He  was  full  of  life  and  animation,  cheery  with  good  humor, 
a'nd  interested  his  companions  with  an  endless  variety  of  stories  and 
incidents  of  camp  and  field,  of  march  and  fight. 

Returning  after  a  year  of  travel,  full  of  interest,  professional  and 
general,  the  lieutenant-general  resumed  command  of  his  division,  and 
once  more  occupied  his  attractive  residence  on  Michigan  Avenue.  He 
was  home  but  a  few  months  when  the  great  fire  broke  out  which 
devastated  and  destroyed  the  larger  part  of  the  "  City  of  the  Lakes." 

The  historic  cow  that  upset  the  old  Irish  woman  and  her  kerosene 
lamp  caused  the  greatest  conflagration  of  modern,  if  not,  indeed,  of 
ancient  history,  also.  The  terrible  fire  swept  on  its  path  of  ruin,, 
bringing  not  destruction  to  property  and  life  alone,  but  demoralizing 
the  entire  people,  and  proving  the  incompetency  of  the  civic  authorities 
to  fulfil  reasonably  any  of  the  onerous  duties  that  fell  upon  them. 

General  Sheridan  was  appealed  to,  and  not  in  vain.  On  the  roth 
of  October, ,1871,  the  Secretary  of  War,  General  John  A.  Rawlins, 
directed  him,  upon  receipt  of  advices  from  the  burning  city,  to  use  all 
his  available  troops  as  a  guard  and  for  the  suppression  of  all  disorder 
and  criminals.  He  also  authorized,  at  General  Sheridan's  request,  the 
issuing  of  100,000  rations.  This  was  done,  says  the  order,  "  to  help  pro- 
tect what  property  is  left  and  to  try  and  get  homes  for  the  homeless." 
The  lieutenant-general  found  it  necessary  to  bring  order  out  of  the  fiery 
chaos,  and,  to  suppress  the  increasing  hordes  of  scoundrels  who  were 
drawn  hither  for  purposes  of  plunder,  to  proclaim  martial  law.  The 
fire  was  subdued  by  the  I2th  instant.  The  soldier  patrols  were  making 
safe  the  blackened  streets,  and  the  terrified  survivors  were  coming  back 
to  where  their  stores  and  homes  had  once  stood.  The  mayor  issued  an 


;$6  THE  LIFE  OF 

order  to  all  persons  against  committing  acts  endangering  life  or  property, 
and  declaring  that  "  with  the  help  of  Gk>d  and  General  Sheridan  I  will 
preserve  order  at  all  hazards."  By  the  general's  orders  800  tents  were 
issued  to  the  homeless  that  evening.  All  the  resources  at  the  command 
of  his  headquarters  were  fully  drawn  upon,  his  chief  quartermaster, 
General  Rucker,  meeting  all  possible  requirements.  He  forwarded  to 
the  mayor  the  following  letter  : 

HEADQUARTERS  OF  MILITARY  DIVISION  OF  THE  WEST,  | 
CHICAGO,  October  i2th,  1871.      j 
To  his  Honor  the  Mayor: 

The  preservation  of  the  peace  and  good  order  of  this  city  having 
been  entrusted  to  me  by  your  Honor,  I  am  happy  to  state  that  no  case 
of  outbreak  or  disorder  has  been  reported . 

The  people  are  calm  and  well  disposed.  The  force  at  my  com- 
mand is  ample  to  maintain  order. 

Still  I  would  suggest  that  the  citizens  do  not  relax  their  vigilance 
until  the  smoldering  fires  are  entirely  extinguished. 

P.  H.  SHERIDAN,  Lieutenant- General. 

In  every  stage  of  the  relief  movements,  as  well  as  those  for  the  main- 
tenance of  order  and  to  prevent  the  revival  of  the  conflagration  in  any 
direction,  General  Sheridan  was  consulted.  The  mayor  announced,  for 
example,  on  the  i6th  of  October,  that,  after  advising  with  General 
Sheridan,  all  matters  relating  to  the  distribution  of  supplies  would  be 
turned  over  to  the  relief  society  which  had  already  been  formed.  On  the 
1 8th  instant,  through  the  Associated  Press,  General  Sheridan  appealed 
to  the  curious  not  to  come  to  Chicago,  simply  to  see.  He  said : 

"  Thousands  of  this  class  are  here  now,  without  shelter  or  accom- 
modations, and  they  must  be  fed  and  cared  for  the  same  as  the  suffer- 
ers." 

There  are  many  anecdotes  characteristic  of  Sheridan  told  in  relation 
to  this  period.  One  will  be  sufficient  to  illustrate  his  direct  modes  of 
dealing.  A  certain  hotel  which  had  escaped  the  flames,  was  reported 
as  charging  exorbitant  rates.  Sheridan  asked  the  price  of  board.  The 
reply  was  $6.00  per  day.  "  How  much  before  the  fire  ?"  The  answer 
was  $2.50. 

"  All  right,"  was  the  general's  reply,  "  I'll  run  this  hotel  myself 
for  $2.50  a  day,"  and  he  at  once  put  an  orderly  in  charge,  and  kept  it 
full  till  martial  law  was  removed. 

Owing  to  a  misunderstanding,  Colonel  Grosvenor,  United  States 
Army,  was,  on  the  26th  of  October,  shot  by  the  police.  There  was  a 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  ^7 

great  deal  of  ungrateful  jealousy  exhibited,  which  was  fanned  by  a  few 
lawyers  and  politicians  like  General  Palmer,  who  saw  the  fabric  of 
American  liberty  crumbling  to  pieces  at  their  feet  because,  in  response 
to  a  demand  by  the  municipal  authorities,  the  soldiery  of  the  United 
States  had,  in  a  savage  crisis,  been  used  to  maintain  order,  protect  a 
homeless  people,  and  to  feed  those  who  were  suffering  from  hunger. 
Idle  stories  of  a  mischievous  nature  were  set  afoot.  One  of  the  current 
dailies  tells  the  following  after  the  fire  and  panic  was  over : 

A  reporter  thought  that  as  there  was  no  murder  there  was  no  fun 
or  excitement.  So  one  day  during  the  fire,  he  determined  to  start 
something  of  the  kind,  and  dispatched  to  New  York : 

"  Seven  incendiaries  have  just  been  shot  down  in  the  act  of  kindling 
fires." 

Only  seven,  growled  the  public,  there  must  be  more  than  that ;  the 
fire  was  a  large  one.  The  next  day,  he  with  his  pen,  hung  Barney 
Aaron  to  a  lamp-post  and  shot  another  fellow  named  Tracey.  Next 
day  a  telegram  was  sent  to  General  Sheridan  asking  him  "  if  it  would 
not  be  possible  to  put  out  the  fire  with  gore  ?  " 

Sheridan  answered,  "  No  disturbance  of  any  kind  here." 

"  Ah,"  said  this  reporter,  "  Sheridan  is  so  used  to  blood  !  This 
is  nothing  to  him.  To  a  man  who  swam  his  horse  through  it  in  the 
Shenandoah,  a  mere  street  full  is  nothing." 

This  story  is  not  a  joke,  but  the  truth,  and  the  falsify  ing  reporter  is  still 
a  well-known  correspondent.  But  the  citizens  of  Chicago  knew  better. 
Sheridan's  services  in  their  behalf  have  been  gratefully  and  substantially 
acknowledged.  The  Washington  house  in  which  he  has  resided  since  his 
transfer  thereto  in  1884,  was  purchased  for  $44,000  by  Chicago  admir- 
ers, who  have  also  endowed  "Little  Phil,  Jr,,"  with  a  valuable  legacy 
in  the  shape  of  telephone  stock,  held  for  his  benefit  and  in  his  name. 
General  Sheridan  liked  Chicago  as  a  residence.  He  took  a  decided 
interest  there  in  social  affairs.  It  is  the  city  of  his  marriage.  He  was 
an  active  member  of  several,  and  an  honorary  member  of  all  the  Chi- 
cago clubs,  and  interested  himself  in  racing  stock  and  fishing.  He  loved  to 
watch  a  good  race  to  the  finish.  A  capital  angler,  he  was,  says  a  member 
of  the  Point  Pelee  Club,  the  only  man  who  could  fish  all  day  without 
getting  a  bite  and  yet  never  complain.  On  his  leaving  Chicago  a 
dinner  was  tendered  him  by  the  Commercial  Club,  at  which  one  of 
its  leading  members,  Mr.  J.  W.  Doane,  said  : 

"  Chicago  can  never  forget  General  Sheridan.  When  the  city  was  in 
flames,  when  men's  hearts  failed  them,  and  ruin  and  desolation  stared 


THE  LIFE  OF 

us  in  the  face,  all  eyes  were  turned  tQvhim  whom  we  honor  here  this 
evening.  It  was  his  cool  brain  arid  prompt  and  ready  courage  that 
greatly  helped  to  check  the  devouring  fire.  It  is  a  matter  of  record 
that  when  every  moment  was  precious,  without  waiting  to  consult  the 
authorities  at  Washington  he  took  it  upon  himself  to  order  troops  and 
rations  from  neighboring  cities,  and  thereby  averted  riot  and  bloodshed, 
and  helped  many  thousands  of  our  people  to  survive  the  severest  trials 
of  the  hour.  So  successful  was  he  in  this  great  crisis  that  the  mayor 
publicly  tendered  to  him  the  thanks  of  Chicago  and  its  whole  people. 
Nor  was  that  all.  In  1874,  when  the  city  was  threatened  with  a  repe- 
tition of  those  calamities,  General  Sheridan  again  was  largely  instru- 
mental in  saving  our  homes  and  fortunes  from  ruin  and  destruction. 
And  once  more,  in  1877,  when  the  Communist  riots  (so  destructive  in 
other  places)  threatened  Chicago,  the  general,  by  making  a  rapid  jour- 
ney of  1,000  miles,  by  appearing  quickly  upon  the  scene,  and  by  his 
wise  and  decisive  action,  rescued  us  for  the  third  time  from  what  might 
have  been  a  public  misfortune  of  no  ordinary  kind.  Believe  me,  gen- 
eral, a  grateful  people  will  embalm  your  memory  in  their  innermost 
hearts.  Representing  as  we  do,  in  some  degree,  the  commercial  inter- 
ests of  this  great  city,  we  feel  that  this  is  a  most  fitting  occasion  to 
acknowledge  thus  publicly  and  in  the  presence  of  your  friends  (whom 
we  are  proud  to  welcome  here  to-night),  your  constant  loyalty  to  this, 
your  chosen  city,  a  loyalty  which  its  citizens  can  never  forget  so  long 
as  Chicago  holds  her  proud  place  among  the  chief  cities  of  the  Union." 

General  Sheridan  made  his  chief  investment  in  Chicago,  or  in  enter- 
prises recommended  to  him  by  friends  in  that  city.  The  family  still  own 
his  former  residence  on  Michigan  Avenue,  and  have  other  real  estate, 
without  considering  the  Washington  home  and  belongings. 

While  still  in  Chicago,  his  military  career  was  marked  with  the 
beginning  and  close  of  the  great  struggle  of  the  Sioux  Nation  against 
the  progress  of  the  whites  in  Dakota.  It  was  also  intensified  by  his 
'visit,  under  orders  from  President  Grant,  to  New  Orleans  in  1875,  where 
he  remained  for  a  short  time.  His  presence  was  rendered  necessary  by 
the  lawless  actions  of  the  White  Leaguers,  whose  rebellious  intentions 
against  the  existing  state  government  would  doubtless  have  been  more 
determined  but  for  the  presence  of  the  commander  whom  once  before 
they  had  learned  to  dread.  His  administration  of  the  great  division 
assigned  to  his  command  will  be  noted  in  the  history  of  this  country  as 
the  period  in  which  the  Indian  problem  came  nearer  to  a  final  solution 
than  at  any  period  of  our  history.  Its  extent  and  character  is  not  yet 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  3^9 

fully  realized.  In  Dakota  alone,  from  the  early  part  of  1861,  hostilities 
prevailed  until  after  the  death  of  General  Custer,  on  the  Rosebud. 
During  the  four  years  of  Civil  War  it  took  an  army  of  12,000  men  to 
hold  the  territory  against  the  implacable  warfare  carried  on  by  the 
hostile  Sioux,  then  comprising  the  major  part  of  their  tribes.  General 
Shelly,  a  regular  army  officer  and  a  vigorous  Indian  fighter,  and  Gene- 
ral Sibley,  a  volunteer,  who  from  having  long  been  with  the  Sioux  as  a 
trader,  understood  them  welt,  were  the  commanding  officers  in  those 
campaigns.  The  half-breed  and  other  traders,  sheltered  under  the 
British  flag  in  what  is  now  known  as  Manitoba,  supplied  the  hostiles 
with  excellent  arms.  As  soon  as  the  Civil  War  ceased  the  War 
Department  turned  its  attention  more  closely  to  the  Sioux  troubles  with 
the  result  that  in  1866  General  S.  R.  Curtis  and  others  were  sent 
as  commissioners  to  receive  the  surrender  of  Red  Cloud,  Spotted  Tail, 
Rain-in-the-face,  Big  Thunder,  and  other  chiefs,  with  their  bands. 
The  formidable  Teton  Sioux  and  their  war  chief,  Sitting  Bull,  were  not 
included  in  the  negotiations  which  brought  the  peace  that  has  since  pre- 
vailed, except  as  to  the  Tetons.  The  progress  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
railroad  and  the  discovery  and  development  of  the  precious  metals  in 
the  Black  Hills  region,  rendered  the  presence  of  troops  more  neces- 
sary. From  the  date  of  his  marriage,  in  1874,  for  several  years,  Sheri- 
dan was  kept  busy  watching  Dakota  affairs  and  arranging  for  the  com- 
plete subjugation  of  the  Sioux  still  remaining  hostile.  He  visited 
annually  the  posts  and  camps  included  within  his  division.  In  1867-8, 
he  was  occupied  closely  with  affairs  on  the  Rio  Grande,  which  at  one 
time  almost  threatened  a  rupture  of  our  friendly  relations  with  Mexico, 

The  lieutenant-general  took,  like  his  senior,  General  Sherman,  a 
great  interest  in  the  higher  practical  instruction  of  army  officers,  and  in 
aiding  the  welfare  and  promotion  of  worthy  soldiers  from  the  rank 
and  file.  The  officers'  school  at  Fort  Leavenworth  was,  to  all  practical 
intents,  a  conception  of  Sheridan's,  and  he  never  failed  to  keep  a  close 
watch  over  its  efficiency  and  welfare. 

In  1883,  General  Sherman,  who  had  passed  the  legal  term  of  active 
service,  was,  at  his  oWn  request,  placed  on  the  retired  list.  The  lieuten- 
ant-general was  summoned  to  Washington  by  President  Arthur,  to 
assume  the  duties  of  commanding-general.  He  remained  there  until  his 
removal  to  Nonquit,  during  the  first  week  in  July  of  1888.  His  time 
there  was  fully  occupied  by  the  army  administration.  Each  year  he 
made  his  annual  tour  of  inspection,  and  it  was  during  his  last  trip  in 
the  early  months  of  the  year  of  his  death  that  he  so  over-exerted  him- 


360  GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

self  as  to  bring  on  the  heart  trouble  to  which,  on  the  night  of  Sunday, 
August  5,  1888,  he  at  last  succumbed. * 

General  Sheridan  was  fond  of  visiting  Chicago  during  the  racing 
season.  He  sometimes  acted  as  judge,  arid  was  president  of  the  Wash- 
ington Park  Club.  He  was  always  present  on  Derby  day.  His  official 
inspection  of  the  garrison  at  the  Highwood,  United  States  Post,  near 
Chicago,  was  probably  the  last  time  that  he  was  officially  saluted  by 
United  States  troops  under  review.  It  was  on  May  5th. 

While  his  fatal  sickness  was  apparently  at  its  height,  and  there  then 
seemed  but  a  very  slight  prospect  of  his  living  even  the  sad  two  months 
that  followed,  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  revived  the  active 
grade  of  general,  and  the  President  appointed  him  thereto,  while  the 
Senate  immediately  confirmed  the  nomination.  This  was  on  the  ist  of 
June,  sixty-six  days  before  his  death.  The  bill  was  presented  and 
passed  the  House,  and  was  carried  to  the  Senate,  the  President  signing 
Sheridan's  nomination,  and  commission  also,  before  the  Senate  had 
acted  on  the  bill  sent  them  from  the  other  branch.  It  was  passed, 
signed,  and  the  nomination  confirmed  before  3  p.  M.  of  the  day  on  which 
it  was  introduced.  Shortly  after,  Senators  Hawley  and  Manderson 
carried  the  commission  to  the  bedside  of  General  Sheridan,  and  very 
soon  after  its  receipt  he  took  the  oath  of  office  and  issued  the  follow- 
ing general  order  —  his  first  and  last  official  act  as  General  of  the 
United  States  Army : 

General  Order  No.  J?. 

HEADQUARTERS  OF  THE  ARMY, 
ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S  OFFICE,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  June  i,  1888. 

1.  The  following  named  officers  are  appointed  aides-de-camp  on 
the  staff  of  the  General  of  the  Army,  with  the  rank  of  colonel,  to  date 
from  this  day  :  Major  Michael  V.  Sheridan,  assistant  adjutant-general ; 
Captain  Stanford  C.  Kellogg,  Fifth  Cavalry  ;    Captain  Stanhope  Blunt, 
ordnance  department. 

2.  In  addition  to  his  duties  as  aide-de-camp,  Colonel  Blunt  will 
continue  to  perform  the  duty  of  inspector  of  rifle  practice  at  headquar- 
ters of  the  army. 

By  command  of  GENERAL  SHERIDAN. 

R.  C.  DRUM,  Adjtctant-General  {Official}. 
J.  C.   KELTON,  Assistant  Adjutant-General. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 


SHERIDAN'S  HOME  AND  FAMILY  LIFE. 

THE  GENERAL'S  WASHINGTON  RESIDENCE  —  MRS.  SHERIDAN  AND  THE  CHILDREN 
—  DOMESTIC  CHARACTER  OF  HUSBAND  AND  FATHER  —  HOME  INTERIORS  — 
PARLOR  AND  LIBRARY — THE  GENERAL'S  OFFICE  IN  THE  WAR  DEPARTMENT  — 
HIS  STAFF  OFFICERS  —  INCIDENTS  AND  ASSOCIATIONS  —  HIS  HEALTH  —  THE 

FATAL    SICKNESS  —  NONQUIT — LIFE  CLOSES  AMID    NATURE'S  BEAUTY. 

THE  quiet,  loving  domesticity  of  General  Sheridan's  home  and 
inner  life  since  his  marriage  at  Chicago  in  1874,  has  been  a  beautiful 
and  striking  contrast  with  the  Titanic  activity  of  that  outer  and  active 
life  upon  which  rests  his  world-wide  fame.  It  is  not  for  any  stranger 
to  seek  to  withdraw  the  veil  of  seclusion  that  fitly  enshrouds  every 
one's  private  and  personal  existence ;  especially  so  while  grief  sits  in 
majestic  sorrow  at  the  portals.  But  it  will  not  be  intrusive  to  draw 
together  and  present  as  a  complete  whole  the  facts  known  of  men. 

A  striking  proof  of  the  wholesome  domesticity  of  the  general's 
character  is  to  be  seen  in  the  fact  that  it  has  required  the  affectionate 
interest  everywhere  aroused  by  the  saddening  incidents  of  his  last  sick- 
ness and  lingering  death,  to  draw  out  the  charming  pictures  of  home 
life  which  are  now  associated  with  the  Sheridan  family.  Living  as  the 
general  and  Mrs.  Sheridan  have  done,  for  the  last  five  years  of  his  life, 
in  a  city  and  community  where  privacy  for  the  public  man  is  almost 
.unknown,  it  is  certainly  a  tribute  to  the  habits  and  wishes  of  General 
Sheridan  that  the  charming  interiors  of  his  Washington  residence  have 
not  heretofore  .been  made  the  subject  of  published  gossip  and  illustra- 
tion. General  Sheridan  was  a  lover  of  his  home,  a  devoted  husband, 
and  a  most  affectionate  father.  He  never  delighted  in  "functions" 
like  our  other  genial  and  lovable  old  warrior,  General  Sherman,  but 
preferred  retirement,  the  ease  of  home,  the  loving  care  of  his  wife,  the 
prattle  of  his  little  ones,  the  quiet  of  his  library,  and  the  silent  com- 
panionship of  his  books. 

The  Washington  house,  costing  about  forty-four  thousand  dollars, 
was  purchased  for  Sheridan  by  his  Chicago  admirers  and  friends.  It 
is  a  fine  residence,  even  in  a  city  notable  for  such  dwellings. 


j62  THE  LIFE  OF 

The  Sheridan  home  is  a  roomy,  ^picturesque,  double  house,  on  the 
corner  of  Rhode  Island  Avenue  and 'Seventeenth  Street.  It  is  directly 
opposite  Representative  Perry  Belmont's  residence,  to  which  it  presents 
an  agreeable  contrast.  Mr.  Belmont's  dwelling  is  large  and  splendid, 
but  it  looks  neglected.  The  turf  is  not  well  kept,  while  across  the 
way  the  Sheridan  terrace  is  clipped  and  watered  until  it  looks  like 
green  velvet.  The  quick-growing  ivy  that  covers  nearly  one  side  of  the 
building  is  as  well  kept  as  the  grass. 

The  entrance  opens  into  a  wide,  roomy  hall,  running  the  whole 
depth  of  the  house,  from  which  a  broad,  easy  staircase  leads  to  the 
upper  floor.  The  hall  floor  has  been  devoted  to  the  family  and  recep- 
tion rooms,  the  library  and  the  dining-room.  The  usual  sitting-room 
is  a  high-ceilinged,  deep  saloon,  furnished  in  rich  but  quiet  taste.  The 
great  bay  window,  deep,  comfortable,  and  looking  out  on  both  avenue 
and  street,  was  the  favorite  resort  of  Mrs.  Sheridan  and  of  all  visitors 
to  this  delightful  mansion.  One  feature  of  this  room  was  a  pretty  little 
mahogany  table,  covered  with  a  large  cloth  wrought  with  Indian  bead 
work.  It  was  sacred  to  the  lares  and  penates  of  the  household, 
being  covered  with  exquisite  miniature  portraits  of  Mrs.  Sheridan  and 
their  four  children.  The  room  behind  the  family  saloon,  and  separated 
from  it  only  by  a  heavy  -portiere,  was  used  as  the  general's  library. 
An  attractive  room  it  was,  with  a  distinct  individuality,  telling  of  its 
famous  occupant.  The  old  red  silk  papered  walls  were  well  covered 
with  portraits  —  paintings  or  photographs  —  of  army  friends.  Sketches 
of  many  historic  events,  and  many  striking  mementoes  were  found  here. 
Half-way  up  the  high  walls,  rows  of  handsome  bookshelves  held  an 
excellently  selected  general  library,  in  which,  however,  works  of  refer- 
ence and  standard  military  authorities  predominated.  Many  maps 
hung  upon  a  convenient  stand,  and  a  large  globe  showed  the  world's 
face  to  the  occupant's  eye.  The  large,  broad  window  at  the  rear  had 
before  it  the  general's  desk  —  a  flat,  rather  small,  mahogany  library 
table,  with  drawers  on  one  side.  There  was  a  big  crystal  inkstand 
upon  it.  A  heavy  blotting  pad,  and  usually,  too,  a  thick  tablet  of 
heavy  unruled  white  paper  waited  the  convenience  of  the  soldier  owner. 
He  used  steel  pens,  and  they  always  could  be  found  in  abundance  in 
front  of  the  inkstand.  As  a  rule,  at  the  right-hand  corner  of  the  desk 
could  be  seen  a  small  collection  of  books,  kept  handy  for  such  refer- 
ence as  the  thoughtful,  well-weighted  man  of  affairs  who  used  to  sit 
there,  might  at  any  moment  require. 

Sheridan's  library  was  crowded  with  curios.     The  mantel  over  the 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 


LATE  RESIDENCE  OF  GENERAL  SHERIDAN, 

WASHINGTON,    D.  C. 

deep,  open  fire-place,  always  blazing  in  winter  with  pine  logs,  was  filled 
with  them.  The  little  meerschaum  smoked  brown  by  the  cadet,  was 
preserved  by  the  general.  His  collection  of  swords  is  notable  and 
historic.  The  one  prized  most  highly  by  its  owner  went  through  all 
the  campaigns.  It  is  a  short-service  weapon,  of  which  scabbard,  blade, 
and  hilt  alike  bear  the  marks  of  severe  usage  and  narrow  escapes  from 
bullets  whose  dents  are  still  seen.  His  spurs,  and  a  little  silver  can- 
teen, pot-bellied,  and  of  the  size  of  a  small  tumbler,  given  him  by  an 
old  army  friend,  occupied  a  prominent  place.  General  Sheridan  had 
a  decided  taste  for  numismatics,  and  owned  quite  a  collection  of  old 
coins,  of  which  he  knew  the  history.  There  were  his  medals  also,  a 


364  THE  LIFE  OF 

notable  collection.  His  commissions  hung  —  each  representing  a  vic- 
tory—  all  framed  on  the  crowded  Walts.  There  were  also  busts  and 
portraits  of  Grant,  Sherman,  Custer,  and  others.  The  most  striking 
piece  of  sculpture  ever  made  relating  to  General  Sheridan  is  a  statuette 
which  represents  him  making  that  famous  ride  from  Winchester.  It 
is  not  more  than  a  foot  and  a  half  high,  but  its  every  atom  is  full  of 
life  and  action.  General  Sheridan  gave  it  the  place  of  honor  on  his 
parlor  table.  It  represents  him  on  his  horse,  hat  in  hand,  as  he  waves 
it  furiously  above  his  head,  while  the  horse  gallops  onward.  This 
superb  piece  of  plastic  skill  is  the  work  of  a  young  New  York  sculptor, 
Mr.  Kelley,  who  is  also  one  of  the  Harper's  staff  of  artists.  Mr, 
Kelley  modeled  the  bas  releivos  also  of  the  Centennial  Monmouth 
battle-field  monument,  now  at  Monmouth,  New  Jersey.  The  Win- 
chester statuette  is  simply  a  piece  of  exquisite  work.  Sheridan's 
account  of  the  famous  horse  he  rode  is  interesting.  The  general  said  of 
4 '  Rienzi,"  or  "Winchester,"  as  he  was  named  after  Buchanan  Read 
immortalized  him,  that  "  I  got  the  horse  when  it  was  about  three 
years  old.  It  was  a  full-blooded  Black  Hawk,  sixteen  and  one-half 
hands  high,  and  I  kept  him  for  seventeen  years.  He  was  twenty  years 
old  when  he  died,  in  1878,  and  I  think  the  primary  cause  of  his  death 
was  rheumatism  and  neuralgia.  I  took  him  with  me  to  New  Orleans, 
and  lent  him  to  one  of  my  staff  officers.  He  brought  him  in  one 
day,  covered  with  foam,  and  I  had  a  green  stable  boy,  who  turned  the 
hose  on  him.  I  took  good  care  of  him,  however,  until  he  died.  He 
was  a  remarkable  horse,  very  fine  looking,  and  a  very  quick  walker. 
He  was  a  present  to  me  from  Colonel  Campbell,  of  the  Second  Michi- 
gan Cavalry.  I  rode  him  in  the  Mississippi  campaign  and  then  carried 
him  to  Kentucky.  I  rode  him  in  the  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  cam- 
paigns, and  when  I  was  transferred  to  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  I  rode 
him  in  all  the  campaigns  when  I  was  in  command  of  the  cavalry.  I 
rode  him  on  that  ride  from  Winchester  to  Cedar  Creek,  and  he  carried 
me  through  in  a  hurry.  It  was  not  twenty  miles,  however,  but  six- 
teen, and  my  own  horse  galloped  nearly  all  the  way.  He  was,  I  think, 
in  about  eighty-five  battles,  and  he  was  hit  three  times.  I  remember 
at  the  battle  of  Chickamauga,  that  a  shot  passed  under  him  and  between 
his  legs.  He  straddled  himself  and  would  not  move,  and  I  had  to  get 
off  and  get  another  horse." 

General  Sheridan  was  always  very  fond  of  animals,  and  this  home 
of  his  contained  many  finely  mounted  specimens.  A  gorgeous  wild 
turkey,  from  Sheridan's  roost  in  Arizona,  looked  down  from  one  of 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

the  walls  of  the  dining-room,  and  the  antlers  of  a  gigantic  elk  orna- 
mented the  entrance  hall.  Upon  the  walls  of  the  hall  there  was  a  tiger 
rug,  almost  as  large  as  a  bed  quilt.  It  hung  flat  against  the  paper  with 
its  head  downward,  and  is  so  mounted  that  it  looks  as  though  it  might 
spring  upon  an  advancing  visitor.  Beneath  it  was  a  magnificent  Mex- 
ican saddle,  which  General  Sheridan  said  took  one  man  two  years  to 
make,  and  at  the  left  of  this  stood  a  grandfather's  clock,  which  out  of  an 
old  Dutch  face  ticked  a  solemn  welcome  to  every  incomer. 

Like  Generals  Logan  and  Grant,  Sheridan  delighted  in  collecting 
old  arms.  Among  his  collection  are  a  number  of  costly  pistols,  many 
of  which  have  histories,  and  some  of  which  were  presented  to  him  by 
his  soldier  friends. 

The  office  occupied  by  General  Sheridan  in  the  massive  pile  of 
which  the  War  Department  occupies  the  eastern  side  of  its  great  paral- 
lelogram, looks  out  on  the  east  grounds  of  the  White  House  and 
Pennsylvania  Avenue,  takes  in  the  gray  granite  pillars  and  walls  of  the 
Treasury  building,  and  gives  a  glimpse  above  them  all  of  the  Capitol's 
white  and  gleaming  dome.  It  is  the  northeast  corner  room  on  the 
second  floor  of  that  great  pile.  Sheridan  was  found  nearly  every  day 
in  the  year  at  his  desk  in  the  room  set  apart  for  use  as  army  headquar- 
ters. The  general's  desk  stood  obliquely  across  the  outermost  corner, 
in  such  a  position  that  as  he  sat  behind  it  the  light  fell  upon  his  back 
and  upon  the  faces  of  all  visitors  to  the  room.  Two  large  cases  are 
filled  with  curious  pottery,  Indian  blankets,  bows  and  arrows,  head- 
gear, clubs  and  other  articles  collected  in  the  Indian  country  before  and 
since  the  War  of  the  Rebellion.  They  stand  at  opposite  sides  of  the 
apartment.  Upon  the  walls  are  portraits  of  Generals  Jackson,  Worth, 
Zachary  Taylor,  Logan,  Blair,  Meade,  and  McPherson,  and  several 
spirited  illustrations  of  Western  hunting  scenes.  One  picture  repre- 
sents a  herd  of  buffalo.  It  was  General  Sheridan's  favorite  habit  to 
show  this  picture  to  childish  visitors,  and  to  delight  them  with  a  hunt- 
ing story.  He  was  a  hard-working  man,  and  always  acted  promptly 
and  methodically  on  all  business  before  him. 

If  any  men  know  another  with  whom  they  are  most  intimately 
associated,  it  should  be  the  members  of  a  military  staff,  especially  under 
the  exigencies  of  vigorous  campaigning.  Of  the  three  great  soldiers  of 
the  Union  Army,  Grant,  Sherman,  and  Sheridan,  we  know  that  the 
military  families  of  the  first  and  last  were  drawn  to  their  chiefs,  not  by 
admiration  and  respect  alone,  but  by  a  love  and  regard  which  could 
only  be  inspired  by  the  fine  as  well  as  strong  characteristics  of  the  chiefs 


366  THE  LIFE  OF 

to  whom  it  was  paid.  With  Sheridan  there  is  something  more  —  there 
is  deep,  enduring  fraternal  feeling, "which  is  unusual,  even  among  sol- 
diers of  the  higher  class. 

As  a  rule,  an  officer  of  rank  may  be  judged  by  his  staft.  Sheridan's 
military  family  was  composed  of  men  trained  as  soldiers  under  his  own 
eye.  While  inflexible  in  matters  of  duty,  severity  was  mingled  with  a 
courtesy  that  greatly  softened  punishment,  and  no  soldier  ever  felt  that 
he  had  been  "  snubbed"  at  General  Sheridan's  headquarters.  Many 
will  remember  his  assistant  adjutant-general,  Major  George  Lee,  a  gal- 
lant soldier  and  courteous  gentleman,  early  stricken  down  with  disease, 
an  officer  in  Sheridan's  confidence,  and  beloved  by  all.  Then  there  was 
his  brother,  Colonel  Michael  V.  Sheridan,  as  he  will  now  be  known  in 
army  records.  There  was  Major  Tom  Moore,  a  great  favorite  of"  Little 
Phil's,"  for  whom  he  afterwards  obtained  a  commission  in  the  regular 
service.  In  war  time,  and  during  the  earlier  years  thereafter,  the  gen- 
eral's constant  companion  was  Brevet  Brigadier-General  James  W. 
Forsyth,  at  the  present  time  colonel  of  the  Seventh  United  States 
Cavalry. 

Forsyth  was  the  acting  assistant  inspector-general  on  Sheridan's 
staff,  but  it  was  seldom  they  were  seen  in  public  apart.  A  newspaper 
writer  recalls  their  appearance  on  Canal  Street,  New  Orleans :  the 
short,  sturdy  figure  of  Sheridan,  buttoned  up  with  military  precision 
in  the  dress  coat  of  a  major-general  —  he  only  wore  two  stars  then  —  in 
his  hand  a  short  cane  of  ivory,  made  from  an  elephant's  tusk,  on  his 
head  a  cloth  hat,  with  a  stiff  rim  of  sailor  shape — the  same  one  he  wore 
when  on  that  memorable  ride.  Beside  Sheridan  walked  Forsyth,  his 
straight,  slight,  soldierly  form  towering  in  its  nearly  six  feet  far  above 
the  broad  shoulders  of  his  chief.  Forsyth  wore  a  jaunty  straight- 
visored  forage  cap  and  a  cavalry  jacket,  which  set  off  his  form  and 
seemed  to  add  to  his  stature.  He  remained  a  member  of  Sheridan's 
staff  long  after  the  war,  and  left  him  only  when  promotion  called  him 
to  other  fields.  The  soldiers  were  together  not  only  at  West  Point, 
but  in  early  service  on  the  Pacific  coast.  When  Sheridan  was  gazetted 
in  May,  1861,  captain  in  the  Thirteenth  Infantry,  of  which  William 
Tecumseh  Sherman  was  made  colonel,  Forsyth  was  made  a  first  lieu- 
tenant in  the  Eighteenth  Infantry.  Both  were  ordered  East  and  came 
by  sea  to  Panama,  crossed  the  Isthmus,  and  thence  by  the  regular  steam- 
ship line  to  New  York,  reaching  that  city  October  26,  1861.  Forsyth 
was  sent  to  the  field  and  Sheridan  to  St.  Louis,  where  he  chafed  under 
administrative  duty  for  several  months. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  367 

Another  ex-staff  officer,  Colonel  Newhall,  who  served  him  as  chief 
of  staff'  in  the  closing  days  of  the  Rebellion,  has  written  one  of  the  most 
interesting  war  volumes  on  those  memorable  scenes. 

A  staff  officer's  position  in  a  volunteer  army  is  not  the  best  one  for 
recognition  and  promotion,  unless,  indeed,  the  general  with  whom  he 
serves  is  just  in  his  dealings  and  careful  to  ensure  reward  to  merit 
that  he  of  all  men  can  alone  estimate  at  its  proper  value.  Sheridan 
was  always  both  prompt  and  just  in  this  direction. 

General  Sherman  mentions  some  interesting  points  in  the  follow- 
ing: 

"  I  saw  Sheridan  for  the  last  time  about  Christmas  of  1887,  in 
Washington.  He  was  then  apparently  hale  and  hearty  —  the  last  man, 
one  would  think,  who  would  succumb  to  illness,  even  of  such  severity 
as  that  which  finally  carried  him  away.  I  refrained  from  visiting  him 
at  Nonquit  because  I  thought  the  excitement  attendant  upon  receiving 
a  call  from  an  old  comrade  and  talking  over  old  times  might  prove  too 
much  for  his  strength.  I  look  with  the  greatest  possible  interest  for 
the  publication  of  his  memoirs.  While  Sheridan  was  at  no  time  that 
I.  knew  him  what  might  be  called  a  student,  yet  he  wrote  admirably. 
I  have  many  letters  from  him  that  are  models  for  clearness  and  exact- 
ness of  style.  Because  of  this,  I  think  his  memoirs  cannot  fail  to  be 
interesting  to  an  extreme  degree.  He  always  had  such  a  fashion  of 
going  right  to  the  point  he  was  after  and  making  it  plain  that  I  think 
he  will  carry  the  same  characteristic  into  his  literary  work.  With  the 
publication  the  three  leaders  of  the  Federal  armies  will  have  had  their 
say,  and  the  historian  of  the  future  will,  I  think,  find  the  story  of  the 
war  truthfully  set  forth  in  them." 

The  general  wrote  his  autobiography  during  the  past  two  years 
and  a  half,  completing  them  in  December,  1887.  The  manuscript  was 
then  revised  and  sent  to  the  printers  some  time  in  the  following  May. 
This  work  was  done  in  the  library  of  the  Washington  residence.  Its 
preparation  was  kept  a  close  secret  until  his  fatal  sickness  came  on. 

General  Sheridan  was  known  by  a  great  many  persons  in  Washing- 
ton. He  was  seen  a  good  deal  on  the  streets  and  in  the  suburbs  driving 
with  his  wife  and  children,  and  everybody  knew  and  talked  about  his 
enjoyment  of  his  home  life.  While  he  was  constantly  sought  as  a 
guest,  it  was  not  easy  to  draw  him  away  from  his  home.  He  felt  a 
great  deal  of  diffidence  before  a  large  audience,  and  was  even  so  in  small 
gatherings,  unless  he  found  that  he  was  sure  to  escape  lionizing.  At  a 
dinner  of  the  Gridiron  Club,  when  he  sat  down  with  the  Washington 


368  THE  LIFE  OF 

newspaper  men  and  their  guests,  he  was  not  urged  to  speak,  but  he  fell 
in  with  the  unconventional  spirit.'xjfHhe  after-dinner  exercises,  and 
delighted  everybody  by  relating,  in  a  most  charming  manner,  several 
stories  of  his  own  experience.  The  plan  of  permitting  him  to  have 
his  own  way  worked  so  well  that  he  seized  an  opportunity,  after  he  had 
spoken  and  others  had  followed  him,  to  get  up  again  and  beg  to  be 
allowed  to  add  another  incident  that  he  had  recalled  and  regarded  as  too 
good  to  keep.  He  had  the  reputation  of  being  reticent  to  the  press, 
but  it  seems  to  have  been  given  to  him  by  writers  who  had  not  known 
him  long  enough  to  learn  that  he  needed  to  be  very  sure  of  a  man's  dis- 
cretion before  becoming  confidential  with,  or  even  communicative  to 
him. 

President  Cleveland  had  learned  to  know  Sheridan  well,  and  to 
have  a  strong  admiration  for  him.  The  general  was  obliged,  in  the 
line  of  his  official  duty,  to  call  occasionally  at  the  Executive  Mansion. 
Many  have  wondered  at  times  who  was  the  modest  little  man  that  came 
puffing  into  the  ante-rooms,  breathless  with  the  effort  of  climbing  two 
steep  flights  of  stairs,  took  a  back  seat  as  if  to  wait,  but  who  was 
speedily  invited,  before  all  the  rest,  to  join  the  President  in  the  library. 
Colonel  Lamont  noticed  that  the  stair  climbing  was  hard  work  for 
General  Sheridan,  and  suggested  to  him  once  or  twice  that  he  could 
save  himself  a  good  deal  of  exertion  by  using  the  private  elevators. 
Sheridan,  however,  made  light  of  his  shortness  of  breath,  and  attributed 
it  to  his  growing  weight  and  laziness.  He  was  aware  for  some  time 
that  his  health  was  not  good,  although  he  had  seemed  to  be  the  picture 
of  robust  vigor  up  to  the  date  of  his  prostration.  When  General 
Rosser,  of  Virginia,  indiscreetly  revived  the  story  about  the  Shenandoah 
Valley  fight,  General  Sheridan  treated  the  letter  humorously,  and 
referred  to  the  reports  of  the  Valley  Campaign  as  furnishing  the  only 
answer  that  he  could  give  to  what  he  spoke  of  as  "a  rather  late  resump- 
tion of  the  fight  by  General  Rosser."  Then  he  turned  the  conversation 
to  other  subjects,  dwelling  upon  the  pleasure  he  had  enjoyed  in  his 
long  rides  through  the  Wind  River  country  and  the  Yellowstone  Park, 
and  recalling  some  incidents  of  his  trip  through  the  park  in  1883  with 
President  Arthur.  He  admitted  that  lie  was  never  in  such  good  health 
as  when  he  was  on  the  back  of  a  good  horse  and  in  the  open  country. 
It  was  suggested  that  he  appeared  to  be  enjoying  the  most  vigorous 
health. 

"Yes,"  he  said  ;  "  everybody  tells  me  the  same  thing.  But,  do  you 
know,  it's  a  mistake.  I'm  a  miserable  dyspeptic.  I  have  to  be  ex- 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  $69 

tremely  cautious  about  everything  that  I  eat  and  drink,  for  I  find  that 
many  things  that  I  once  enjoyed  with  absolute  freedom  now  give  me 
most  painful  distress  —  make  me  irritable  and  miserable  and  good  for 
nothing."  He  spoke  of  his  intention  to  make  a  radical  change  in  his 
diet  to  see  what  the  effect  would  be,  but  afterward  laughingly  admitted 
that  he  had  never  quite  come  to  the  point  of  making  the  change  he  had 
decided  to  be  so  important  to  his  health. 

Colonel  Herbert  E.  Hill,  of  Somerville,  Massachusetts,  who  was 
with  Sheridan  in  the  Valley  Campaign,  and  tofvhom  the  general  sent 
interesting  letters  after  the  war  relative  to  the  rally  and  victory  of 
Cedar  Creek,  contributes  to  the  flood  of  reminiscence  the  following 
interesting  incident : 

u  As  showing  a  little  glimpse  of  Sheridan's  kindly  heart  and  the 
affectionate  regard  in  which  he  held  all  who  fought  with  him,  let  me 
tell  a  little  anecdote.  There  now  stands  a  memorial  battery  on  Central 
Hill,  Somerville,  behind  the  identical  breastwork  which  the  revolution- 
ary army  threw  up  on  the  night  before  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill. 
There  are  four  guns  in  the  battery,  and  they  are  the  ones  which  were 
sent  by  General  Grant  to  Fort  Standish  in  Plymouth  Harbor.  When 
this  fort  was  discontinued  these  were  returned  to  the  Ordnance  De- 
partment at  Washington.  They  were  just  the  ones  I  wanted  to  bring 
to  Somerville,  but  other  parties  were  after  them,  and  I  was  not  sure  of 
getting  them.  In  this  dilemma  I  was  sitting  in  General  Sheridan's 
office,  chatting,  and  finally  broached  the  matter  of  these  guns.  There 
is  a  great  deal  of  etiquette  among  the  different  departments  at  Wash- 
ington, and  one  does  not  like  to  interfere  with  another,  as  it  mixes 
things  all  up.  I  knew  this,  and  I  knew  that  Sheridan  had  nothing  to 
do  with  the  Ordnance  Department ;  but  I  ventured  to  suggest  the 
matter  to  him.  He  thought  of  it,  and  then  explained  to  me  the  diffi- 
culty he  was  in.  He,  the  General  of  the  Army,  did  not  wish  to  break 
over  any  rule  of  etiquette  between  departments,  as  it  would  at  once 
create  a  dangerous  precedent.  '  I  will  do  anything  else  for  you,'  said 
he,  '  but  I  don't  see  how  I  can  do  this.' 

"  '  General,'  said  I,  '  twenty  years  ago  this  month  I  remember  help- 
ing you  capture  forty-eight  guns  from  the  enemy  on  the  field  of  battle, 
one  day  ;  now,  am  I  not  justified  in  time  of  peace  to  ask  you  to  help  me 
capture  only  four  guns  for  memorial  purposes  ? ' 

"Instantly  a  change  came  over  his  face;  recollections  of  the  hot 
fight  at  Winchester  and  the  men  who  were  with  him  then  came  over 
him,  and,  turning  around  in  his  chair,  he  pulled  out  an  order,  and 

24 


0 


O 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  J7i 

before  I  left  his  office  I  had  all  the  paper  necessary  to  get  those  guns. 
I  had  touched  the  right  cord,  and  he  realized  that  but  for  the  men  who 
helped  him  twenty  years  before  he  would  not  then  have  been  General 
of  the  United  States  Army,  and  in  a  position  to  help  his  old  soldiers." 

General  Sheridan's  wife,  Irene  M.  Rucker,  is  the  daughter  of  Mrs. 
and  General  Daniel  Henry  Rucker,  retired  Quartermaster-General  of 
the  United  States  Army.  She  is  indeed,  a  soldier's  daughter,  as  well 
as  a  soldier's  wife  and  widow.  The  Ruckers  are  a  family  of  soldiers, 
her  grandfather  and  two  brothers,  as  well  as  her  father  and  husband, 
being  all  distinguished  officers  of  the  American  Army.  General  Rucker 
and  his  wife,  Mrs.  Sheridan's  mother,  now  reside  in  Washington. 
He  is  a  native  of  Belleville,  New  Jersey,  entered  the  army  from  Mich- 
igan as  lieutenant  of  dragoons  in  1837,  and  served  with  distinction  on 
the  frontiers,  in  the  Cherokee  Nation,  at  Fort  Leavenworth,  and  in 
Texas  and  Mexico.  From  1853  to  1855  he  was  stationed  at  Fort  Union 
as  depot  quartermaster,  and  it  was  at  this  military  post  that  Mrs.  Sher- 
idan was  born. 

The  first  three  years  of  Mrs.  Sheridan's  infant  life  were  passed  at 
that  frontier  fort  amid  the  alarms  of  Indian  wars  and  the  discomforts  of 
garrison  life.  The  following  year  was  passed  at  Detroit,  where  her 
father  was  stationed.  From  that  point  he  was  transferred  to  Wash- 
ington. There  Mrs.  Sheridan  passed  several  years  of  her  early  child- 
hood. 

Upon  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  her  father  having  been  assigned  to 
duty  in  the  field,  she  was  placed  with  her  younger  sister  Sara,  who 
was  born  at  Albuquerque,  New  Mexico,  at  the  Georgetown  (now 
West  Washington)  Academy  of  the  Visitation,  and  remained  there  until 
the  close  of  the  war.  Her  father  having  been  ordered  to  Philadelphia 
for  duty,  Miss  Rucker  and  her  sister  were  placed  at  the  School  of  the 
Convent  of  the  Sisters  of  the  Holy  Child,  of  that  city. 

General  Rucker,  assigned  to  duty  on  the  staff'  of  General  Sheridan 
at  Chicago,  went  to  that  point  with  his  family,  but  his  daughters,  Irene 
and  Sara,  returned  to  the  school  at  Philadelphia,  where  they  were 
graduated.  The  year  of  their  leaving  school,  in  June,  1874,  witnessed 
the  marriage  of  Miss  Irene  M.  Rucker  to  the  lieutenant-general.  Mrs. 
Sheridan's  father,  quartermaster-general  for  several  years,  and  now 
retired,  resides  in  Washington  with  his  two  daughters,  Miss  Louise 
and  Miss  Sara  Rucker.  Miss  Louise  Rucker,  the  eldest  daughter,  was 
born  at  Fort  Leavenworth  and  was  educated  at  Detroit,  where  she  lived 
with  her  grandmother  while  her  father,  when  a  lieutenant,  was  on 


THE  LIFE  OF 

active  duty  on  the  frontier.  Mrs.  Sheridan's  brother,  Francis  D. 
Rucker,  is  an  officer  of  United  States  Cavalry.  Another  brother,  John 
A.  Rucker,  an  officer  of  the  Sixth  Cavalry,  was  drowned  while  rescu- 
ing Austin  Henly,  of  the  same  regiment,  who  also  lost  his  life  in  a 
flood  near  Camp  Supply,  Arizona,  in  1878. 

The  general  and  his  wife  first  met  at  a  wedding  in  army  circles,  where 
Miss  Irene  M.  Rucker  was  one  of  the  bridesmaids.  Having  decided, 
the  general  proved  no  laggard  wooer,  and  the  lady,  a  daughter  and  sister 
of  soldiers,  cradled  in  all  the  romance,  fervor,  and  passion  of  loyalty 
and  service,  was  not  unwilling  to  be  the  bride,  as  their  marriage  proved, 
of  the  most  dashing  and  picturesque  leader  the  Civil  War  gave  to  the 
Nation.  At  the  date  of  his  marriage  the  lieutenant-general  was  thus 
described  : 

Sheridan  still  looked  as  he  did  during  the  fighting  —  a  soldier  in  every 
line  of  his  sturdy,  nervous,  vitalized  frame.  His  face  was  florid,  his 
head  compact  and  powerful  in  form.  But  the  lines  of  his  once  spare, 
muscular  frame,  which  in  his  valley  campaign  weighed  but  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty  pounds,  had  now  begun  to  fill  and  curve  with  adipose. 
He  was  not  over-stout  at  the  time  of  his  marriage  ;  but  there  was  about 
him  that  sense  of  power  which  high  responsibility  gives.  He  had  it  in 
such  degree  that  it  lent  dignity  to  a  figure  that  without  the  sense  of 
intellect  and  character  his  presence  conveyed  would  have  been  other- 
wise awkward  even  to  grotesqueness.  In  him  there  was  more  than  the 
mere  fighter  look.  The  head  and  face  always  wore  an  unmistakable 
expression  of  intellectual  vigor.  Sheridan  looked  like  a  ruler  of  men  ; 
like  the  man  who  .could,  as  he  did,  make  a  scatterred  army  cohere  into  a 
victorious  phalanx  and  throw  it  like  an  avalanche  on  a  coming  foe. 
He  was  less  than  five  feet  six  inches  in  height,  while  the  breadth  of  his 
shoulders  and  the  depth  of  his  chest  were  very  great.  His  hands  and  feet 
were  small.  His  face  was  unmistakably  Irish  in  expression,  was  slightly 
oval  in  outline,  well-knit,  and  marked  in  feature.  The  lower  jaw  was 
long  and  powerful,  coming  down  on  each  side  to  a  square,  firm  chin. 
The  mouth  draped  by  a  mustache  of  moderate  size,  was  a  strong,  straight, 
and  rather  mobile  feature.  The  nose  was  one  of  the  fighting  sort,  small 
at  the  root,  wide  at  the  nostrils,  and  slightly  aquiline  in  form.  The  head 
was  long,  moderately  high,  quite  broad,  very  compact,  with  good  back 
head  and  base  brain.  The  larger  proportion  was  forward  of  the  ears. 
Sheridan's  eyes  were  among  the  best,  if  not  the  very  best,  features  of  his 
remarkable  face.  These  were  of  that  warm,  gray  hue,  which  softens 
with  a  wonderful  kindness,  or  flashes  with  a  consuming  fire.  The  fore- 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN. 

head  was  good,  broad,  not  high,  with  the  perceptives  well-developed, 
and  the  eyebrows  arched  into  the  shape  which  is  seen  in  antique  sculp- 
ture, but  is  so  seldom  visible 'in  modern  countenances. 

The  marriage  was  conducted  by  Bishop  Foley,  of  Detroit,  whose 
brother  acted  at  the  general's  funeral.  Owing  to  the  death,  then  recent, 
of  Mr.  John  Sheridan,  the  marriage  was  entirely  a  private  one. 

The  children  of  this  marriage  are  four :  Mary,  now  in  her  eleventh 
year  ;  "Little  Phil,  Jr.,"  a  boy  of  four  years,  and  two  girls  —  twins  — 
of  six  years  old,  named  Irene  and  Louise.  Miss  Mary  is  slender, 
slight,  dark  eyed,  with  golden-brown  hair,  and  fine  mobile  features. 
The  twins  are  a  pair  of  lovely  children,  so  entirely  alike  as  to  be  undis- 
tinguishable  even  to  their  grand-parents  and  aunts.  They  are  noted  by 
some  slight  difference  of  dress,  but  are  always  together,  independent  in 
ways,  and  full  of  character  for  little  ones.  Philip  was  born  in  Wash- 
ington ;  Mary  and  the  twins  in  Chicago.  Mrs.  Sheridan  is  recognized 
as  a  prudent  and  thoroughly  careful  mother,  overseeing  all  details  of 
their  lives  and  caring  for  their  education  herself.  The  children  all 
speak  French  as  readily  as  their  mother  tongue.  They  are  great 
favorites  with  their  child  companions  and  playmates.  In  the  matter  of 
dress,  the  same  modest  simplicity  which  is  so  striking  a  detail  of  the 
Sheridan  household  always  prevails.  The  children  are  carefully,  even 
artistically  clothed,  but  laces,  ribbons,  sashes,  silks,  feathers,  or  elabor- 
ate wear  of  any  kind  are  never  seen  on  these  little  ones. 

Mrs.  Sheridan,  nineteen  years  younger  than  her  distinguished  hus- 
band, was  known  at  the  time  of  their  marriage  as  the  "pretty  Miss 
Rucker."  She  is  always  referred  to  in  Washington  as  the  "  lovely  Mrs. 
Sheridan."  Both  remarks  are  singularly  applicable,  yet  her  character 
is  granted  by  all  admitted  to  her  friendship  to  be  as  charming  and  sin- 
cere as  her  physique  is  lovely  and  attractive.  The  womanly  dignity 
and  reticence,  too,  with  which  her  grievous  loss  and  the  suffering  it 
caused,  was  borne,  has  endeared  her  to  all.  She  is  petite  in  stature  and 
a  brunette  in  complexion.  Since  her  marriage  and  maternity  her  figure 
has  filled  and  rounded,  yet  not  disproportionately  to  her  height.  Frank 
G.  Carpenter,  a  well-known  Washingtonian,  thus  described  Mrs.  Sher- 
idan a  short  time  before  the  general's  death  : 

"  Straight,  well  rounded,  and  fine  looking,  her  face  might  have  been 
that  of  an  ideal  portrait.  Its  features  are  regular  and  refined,  and  a 
great  mass  of  dark  brown  hair  is  rolled  up  on  the  back  of  her  shapely 
head.  As  wife  of  the  General  of  the  Army,  she  gives  her  regular 
receptions  to  the  public,  and  she  has  on  some  days  as  many  as  three 


374 


THE  LIFE  OF 


hundred  callers.  Mrs.  Sheridan  is  r\Qted  for  her  good  sense.  A  friend 
of  hers  tells  me  that  when  she  firs't  came  to  Washington  she  was  sur- 
prised at  the  silly  remarks  made  by  some  women  at  receptions,  and  She 
decided  that  she  would  think  before  she  spoke,  and  if  she  had  nothing 
to  say  she  would  remain  silent.  She  persevered,  says  this  lady,  in  this 
determination,  and  she  is  one  of  our  society  ladies  who  always  talks 
well.  She  is  a  good  mother  and  a  good  wife,  and  she  takes  the  greatest 
care  in  the  education  of  her^  children.  She  and  the  general  are 
wrapped  up  in  their  family,  and  the  four  little  ones,  the  three  girls  and 
'Little  Phil,  Jr.,'  who  make  up  the  family  circle,  are  as  bright, 
intelligent,  and  well-bred  children  as  you  will  find  at  the  capital. 
.  Mrs.  Sheridan  is  one  of  the  leading  spirits  in  the  charitable 
enterprises  of  the  capital,  and  she  is  a  devout  Catholic."* 

General  Sheridan  used  to  tell  with  considerable  gusto  a  story  in 
connection  with  the  arrangements  for  the  wedding,  which  was,  of  course, 
a  social  event  of  importance.  The  newspapers  were  eager  for  all  items 
and  incidents  in  connection  with  it,  and  correspondents  and  artists 
were  sent  from  all  the  great  journals  to  Chicago.  The  engagement 
was  announced  several  weeks  beforehand.  The  general's  bachelor 
establishment  was  in  a  large,  comfortable,  old-fashioned,  two-storied 
dwelling  on  Michigan  Avenue,  which  the  family  still  own,  and  which,  it 
is  reported,  will  be  their  future  home,  as  Mrs.  Sheridan  does  not  care 
for  Washington.  The  general's  story  illustrates  the  public  curiosity  at 
the  time  : 

"  The  newspapers,  you  know,  had  got  everything  but  a  description  of 
my  house.  Of  course  they  could  easily  get  the  outside  of  that,  but  they 
wanted  to  describe  the  inside.  I  refused  to  let  the  reporter  in  ;  I  wasn't 

going  to  have  that  d d  old  house  put  in  the  papers.  It  was  good 

enough  for  me,  but  it  wasn't  fine  enough  for  that.  If  it  had  been  one 
of  your  swell  houses  I  don't  know  as  I'd  have  cared  ;  but  I  just  made 
up  my  mind  that  that  old  shelter  couldn't  be  described  or  sketched  for 
the  public.  So,  when  a  New  York  fellow  came  one  day  and  asked  me 
to  let  him  make  a  picture  of  it,  I  told  him,  without  any  ceremony,  that 
it  couldn't  be  done.  My  housekeeper  was  an  old  black  woman,  one  of 
the  old-aunty,  faithful-to-death  order  of  servants.  I  told  her  not  to 
admit  any  one  in  my  absence,  and  on  no  account  to  let  any  man  enter 
the  house  except  the  workmen  who  were  doing  some  plumbing.  They 
were  at  work  for  several  days,  and  the  old  woman  knew  them  after  the 

*  Cosmopolitan,  August,  1888. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

first  day.  Well,  I  didn't  see  anything  more  of  the  New  York  man  and 
soon  forgot  him.  One  day  I  went  home  and  found  the  old  woman 
crying  and  in  great  distress,  scared,  and  nervous. 

"  '  Fore  de  Lawd,  gin'ral,  Ise  couldn't  help  it ;  I  thought  he  fixin' 
de  pipes,  and  he  done  ketched  pictures  of  all  de  rooms.' 

"  The  fellow  had  got  in  after  all.  He  had  borrowed  a  suit  of 
plumber's  clothes,  concealed  his  sketching  traps,  and  gone  into  the  house. 
Of  course  the  old  woman  had  paid  no  further  attention  than  to  see  his 
general  appearance  was  that  of  one  of  the  workmen.  So  he  had  gone 
up  stairs,  and  when  she  happened  to  go  up  later  she  saw  him  sitting  in 
my  room  working  away  with  his  sketch-book.  He  made  no  apology, 
and  no  efforts  to  comfort  her  when  she  began  to  cry,  but  only  laughed 
and  said  he  had  got  all  he  wanted,  and  was  much  obliged.  I  don't 
think  I  was  ever  so  mad  in  my  life.  However,  I  consoled  the  poor  old 
woman  by  relieving  her  of  all  blame,  and  then  sat  down  to  devise  a 
plan  to  circumvent  the  fellow.  It  was  a  mighty  smart  dodge,  and  I 
knew  I'd  have  to  be  quick  about  it,  or  I'd  be  beaten.  All  at  once  my 
eye  fell  on  a  sword  that  had  been  presented  to  me  by  the  Army  of  the 
Cumberland.  It  was  a  magnificent  sword,  and  had  had  a  large  dia- 
mond in  the  hilt.  That  had  disappeared  some  time  before.  I  never 
knew  how,  but  supposed  it  had  been  stolen.  Well,  I  took  out  my 
pocket-knife  and  scratched  up  the  gold  around  where  the  diamond  had 
been,  and  made  it  look  as  if  the  thing  had  just  been  taken  out. 

"  '  Now,  my  young  sketchier,'  I  said  to  myself, '  I'll  see  if  I  can't  get 
ahead  of  you.  If  I  don't  outgeneral  you,  my  name  isn't  Phil  Sheri- 
dan.' 

"  I  went  to  the  chief  of  police  and  told  him  the  story  of  the  reporter, 
and  of  the  disappearance  of  the  diamond.  At  the  same  time  I  let  him 
into  the  secret,  you  know.  Well,  the  detectives  turned  the  city  upside 
down  in  the  search  of  the  reporter  disguised  as  a  plumber  who  had  un- 
doubtedly stolen  the  diamond.  The  detectives  were  honest  enough,  as 
they  were  not  posted  on  the  real  facts.  It  was  worked  in  such  a  way 
that  had  the  reporter  brought  out  his  pictures  the  theft  could  be  traced 
to  him.  No,  the  old  frame  house  did  not  get  into  the  papers,  by  a  long 
shot.  The  fellow  was  spotted,  as  the  name  of  the  paper  was  given. 
I  presume  he  got  away  from  the  city  as  quickly  as  he  could,  and  was 
mighty  glad  to  escape,  too.  About  two  years  after  I  happened  to  meet 
one  of  the  editors  of  the  paper  and  he  referred  to  the  affair,  and  said : 
'Why,  that  man  had  been  in  our  employ  a  long  time.  He  was  the  last 
one  to  be  suspected  of  taking  a  diamond  or  anything  else  that  didn't 
belong  to  him.' 


THE  LIFE  OF 

"•  Then  I  explained  why  my  old  house  wasn't  in  his  paper.  I  told 
him  it  wasn't  often  that  we  got  aheticTof  reporters.  But  I  thought  I 
had  succeeded  pretty  well  with  that  one." 

General  Sheridan's  last  residence,  and  the  one  in  which  he  died, 
will  make  historic  the  exquisite  seaside  summer  village  in  which  it 
stands.  Nonquit  stands  on  the  shore  of  Buzzard's  Bay,  Massachusetts, 
seven  miles  below  New  Bedford,  the  once  famous  whaling  port  of  the 
United  States.  It  looks  over  that  lovely  summer  sea,  which  is  dotted 
by  Martha's  Vineyard  and  Nantucket  islands,  besides  other  smaller 
ones,  and  is  sheltered  somewhat  from  the  easterly  wind  by  the  sickle- 
shaped  peninsula  of  Cape  Cod.  To  reach  it  one  passes  by  the  entrance 
to  the  island-dotted  waters  and  picturesque  hilled  shores  of  Narragansett 
Bay,  at  whose  portals  stands  the  historic  Rhode  Island,  and  whose  shores 
are  the  famed  Providence  Plantations  that  Roger  Williams  founded.  It 
is  a  region  as  lovely  as  any  section  of  our  Atlantic  coast,  and  reminds 
one  in  petto  of  the  beautiful  St.  Lawrence,  and  its  Thousand  Islands. 

The  Sheridans  purchased  land  at  Nonquit  in  1887,  an(^  *ne  general 
at  once  ordered  the  construction  of  the  handsome  cottage  residence 
which  he  was  to  inhabit  only  in  a  dying  state  ;  to  and  from  which  he 
was  borne  dying  and  dead,  surrounded  by  the  loving  watchfulness  ot 
his  family  and  the  generous  care  of  the  Nation  he  served  so  well.  The 
bereaved  family  still  use  it  as  a  summer  residence. 

The  seaside  hamlet  of  Nonquit  is  very  small.  But  it  is  as  socially 
select  as  it  is  lovely  in  its  natural  aspects.  Doubtless  the  choice  of 
this  point  as  a  summer  residence  was  due  to  the  fact  that  army  and 
Chicago  friends  were  both  interested.  The  little  village  stands  on  a 
gentle  slope  almost  entirely  bare  of  trees,  and  is  composed  of  cottages 
situated  at  short  distances  apart,  and  without  fences  to  mark  the  divid- 
ing lines.  Nonquit  was  founded  something  more  than  fifteen  years  ago 
by  a  syndicate  of  eastern  capitalists  who  bought  half  a  dozen  large  farms 
on  Buzzard's  Bay  shore  below  Paden-Aran.  They  built  a  hotel  and  a 
number  of  cottages,  and  disposed  of  lots  to  well-known  families  for 
building  purposes.  The  place  has  thus  become  a  favorite  and  some- 
what exclusive  social  summer  resort.  R.  Swain  GifTord,  the  artist, 
has  a  charming  home  there,  and  Louisa  M.  Alcott,  the  author,  was 
also  a  sojourner  at  Nonquit  for  several  seasons.  General  Sheridan  went 
there  in  the  summer  of  1887,  rented  a  cottage,  and  took  such  a  liking 
to  the  place  that  he  decided  to  make  it  his  summer  home,  so  he  built 
the  handsome  cottage  to  which  he  was  carried  in  July,  1888.  It  is 
roomy,  very  cheerful,  and  presents  a  pretty  architectural  effect. 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN, 


377 


CABIN  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  STEAMSHIP  SWATARA, 

IN   WHICH   SHERIDAN  WAS  REMOVED  TO   NONQUIT. 

Like  Mount  McGregor,  where  Grant  died,  Nonquit,  before  un- 
known, will  become  sadly  famous.  It  will  always  be  recalled  by  the 
story  of  that  fateful  August  5th,  when  from  the  window  of  the  east 
room  in  which  he  lay,  Philip  Henry  Sheridan  took  that  last  long,  lin- 
gering look  over  the  summer  sea  that  softly  swelled  before  his  eyes. 
The  ocean  has  been  by  many  poets  treated  as  the  emblem  of  Eternity. 
Unmastered  by  man,  it  flows  on  forever.  Who  can  say  what  thoughts 
entered  the  brain  of  the  dying  hero,  what  pictures  of  the  past  and  future 
were  imprinted  on  the  retina  of  his  brain,  as  he  gazed  with  wistful, 
absorbing,  imaginative  look  for  the  last  time  on  the  lovely  marine 
scene  before  him  ? 

With  such  sad  memories  freighted,  Nonquit  has  become  famous. 
The  old  name  "  Barekneed  "  has  been  preserved  in  a  charming  paint- 
ing by  the  famous  marine  artist,  R.  Swain  GifFord,  who  has  placed  on 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN. 

his  canvas  the  romantic  cliff  near  the  Sheridan  cottage,  the  neighbor- 
ing beach,  and  a  wide  expanse  of  the*  waters  that  make  the  picturesque 
stretch  of  Buzzard's  Bay.  This  painting  has  been  given  the  old  name. 
The  little  lyric  here  given  was  written  at  Nonquit,  and  seems  to  have 
caught  in  its  musical  numbers  the  brooding  calm  and  beauty  of  the 
scenes  amid  which  our  hero  has  gone  to  his  eternal  rest : 

"Soft  is  the  swell  of  the  musical  sea, 

As  ripple  by  ripple,  and  wave  by  wave, 
It  rises  and  falls  on  the  sandy  lea, 

And  the  high,  bold  rocks  its  waters  lave. 

"  Nothing  is  heard  but  the  rising  tide, 

And  the  winds  that  sweep  o'er  the  bay's  rough  breast; 
The  distant  ships  o'er  the  white  foam  glide 
And  the  nearer  ones  at  anchor  rest. 

"  Peaceful  and  calm  is  the  beautiful  scene, 

This  wave-washed  spot  on  the  sandy  shore  ; 
Myriads  of  ages  shall  intervene, 

And  these  waves  will  dash,  as  they  dashed  of  yore. 

"  The  nations  will  live  out  their  fitful  life  ; 

The  swell  of  humanity  rise  and  fall ; 
Oblivion  brood  o'er  the  world's  wild  strife; 
Empires  emerge  from  their  weary  thrall. 

"  But  these  waves  of  the  bay  will  still  roll  on, 

These  rocks  resist  with  defiant  will ; 
A  thousand  years  will  have  come  and  gone, 
But  the  sea  shall  ring  out  its  brave  notes  still." 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 


HIS  DEATH-BED  AND  THE  RETURN  TO 
WASHINGTON. 

SAD  SCENES  AT  NONOJJIT — THE  GENERAL'S  DEATH  —  GRIEF  OF  THE  FAMILY  — 
WHAT  THE  DOCTORS  SAID — A  SIMPLE  MILITARY  FUNERAL  DECIDED  UPON 
—  SHERIDAN  IN  HIS  CASKET  —  REMOVAL  TO  WASHINGTON  —  PASSAGE  FROM 
NEW  BEDFORD  TO  NEW  YORK  —  THE  VETERANS  OF  THE  PENNSYLVANIA 
ROAD  —  IN  SILENT  RESPECT  ALONG  THE  ROUTE — ARRIVAL  AT  WASHINGTON. 

A  LOVELY  August  day  at  Nonquit  closed,  ere  midnight,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  life's  mightiest  tragedy  —  the  death  of  a  strong  man  in  the  high 
meridian  of  life,  with  the  loved  of  his  heart  and  home  bewailing  their 
terrible  loss.  That  Sabbath  —  the  fifth  day  of  the  month  —  was  ex- 
quisite as  it  brooded  peacefully  over  lovely  Nonquit.  The  breast  of 
the  summer  sea  was  barely  ruffled  and  rippled  by  the  languid  breath  of 
the  summer  wind.  In  that  pretty  cottage  to  which  so  much  of  solicit- 
ous hope  was  turned,  its  famous  inmate  lay  drowsily  on  his  cot,  in 
deadly  weakness,  at  times  looking  from  the  great  bay  window  east- 
ward over  the  unclouded  waters.  Yet  there  was  hope  that  day.  The 
chief  consulting  physician,  Dr.  Pepper,  had  lifted  the  Sheridan  house- 
hold with  his  cheering  diagnosis  of  the  patient's  condition.  As  the 
sun  went  down,  the  busy  pens  of  the  pressmen,  and  the  busy  fingers 
of  the  telegrapher  pressing  his  operating  key,  were  telling  all  over  the 
broad  land  that  there  was  "  hope  for  Sheridan  yet."  The  slow  step  of 
the  saddened  wife  and  mother  was  a  little  lighter  as  it  moved  to  and 
fro.  The  children,  happily,  almost  unconscious,  except  the  eldest  girl, 
were  allowed  to  play  about  the  pleasant  hotel.  The  black-robed  sisters 
who  had  so  carefully  nursed  the  dying  soldier,  began  to  indulge  in  a 
little  hope.  Every  one  felt  the  effect  of  Dr.  Pepper's  cheering  examina- 
tion. And  so  the  sun  went  down.  The  brief  twilight  of  the  New 
England  coast  passed  into  the  soft  and  fragrant  darkness  of  its  earlier 
night  hours. 


THE  LIFE  OF 


There  came  a  change  as  the  evening  closed.  Klien,  the  general's 
faithful  servant,  who  had  been  with"  Rim  for  many  years,  entered  the 
general's  room,  with  his  usual  purpose  of  attending  to  the  comfort  of 
his  chief  before  he  himself  retired  for  the  night.  No  one  had  any 
serious  fears,  but  rather  the  contrary. 

Mrs.  Sheridan  was  attending  the  children  on  their  retiring  for  the 
night,  when  Klien  found  the  general  breathing  heavily.  That  stertorous 
sound  was  one  of  grave  danger.  Doctors  O'Reilly  and  Mathews,  his 
faithful  army  comrades  and  surgeons,  were  notified.  What  they  saw 
brought  the  gravest  of  anxiety.  They  felt  the  gates  of  death  were 
opening  wide.  Everything  was  done  and  at  once.  Mrs.  Sheridan  was 
called.  His  brother —  absent  briefly  at  the  hotel  — was  hastily  notified 
by  Klien. 

The  soldier  was  nearing  his  end.  The  change  occurred  suddenly. 
When  the  heavy  breathing  was  first  heard,  he  was  lying  partially  on 
one  side,  and  the  sister  who  had  been  in  constant  attendance  did  not 
notice  anything  wrong.  It  had  been  the  practice  of  the  physicians  to 
frequently  apply  the  fingers  to  the  pulse,  and  Dr.  O'Reilly  usually  did 
this.  To  his  horror  he  now  discovered  great  weakness  and  frequent 
intermissions.  The  first  step  taken  was  to  administer  ammonia.  This 
stimulant  was  powerless  to  produce  a  change  in  the  heart's  action. 
Digitalis  was  then  injected  hypodermically.  Still  the  life  current 
coursing  through  the  artery  at  the  wrist  remained  weak.  Then  it  grew 
weaker  and  weaker.  Sinapis  was  applied  to  the  chest  and  limbs,  and 
finally  the  galvanic  battery  was  brought  out  and  a  current  steadily 
increasing  in  strength  was  directed  along  the  spine  and  through  the 
chest  of  the  now  nearly  unconscious  form  of  the  general. 

The  end  was  near,  but  it  was  peaceful.  There  was  but  little  physical 
suffering,  apparently,  until  within  the  last  few  minutes.  Mrs.  Sheridan 
was  not  greatly  alarmed,  and  she  expected  a  reaction  from  the  syncope. 
Quietly,  like  a  child  going  to  slumber,  the  gallant  soldier  fell  into  the 
long  sleep.  The  great  heart  ceased  to  beat,  and  Philip  Henry  Sheridan 
was  dead.  The  little  children  were  slumbering  in  their  beds.  Only 
the  'wife  and  mother  with  one  of  the  sisters  was  present,  besides  the 
physicians.  The  scene  at  the  bedside  was  impressive,  but  free  from 
striking  incidents.  During  the  first  part  of  the  attack  General  Sheridan 
did  not  realize  his  condition.  But  he  became  aware  of  the  impending 
doom  before  his  wife  appreciated  the  danger.  He  spoke  of  his  children 
once  in  faint  tones,  and  his  manner  impressed  Mrs.  Sheridan  for  the 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  j8i 

first  time  with  the  fact  that  her  husband  was  dying.  Several  family 
matters  were  referred  to,  and  he  spoke  the  name  of  his  son.  "  Little 
Phil !  "  the  dying  hero  whispered,  "  Little  Phil !  "  He  continued  to 
grow  weaker,  the  pulse-beats  seemed  almost  to  cease.  Suddenly  open- 
ing his  eyes  for  a  moment,  he  seemed  to  gather  into  his  vision  all  the 
faces  about  him,  and  gazing  intently  into  the  agonized  one  of  his  wife 
for  the  last  time,  a  sweet  smile  wreathed  his  pallid  countenance.  The 
comrade  doctors  knelt  in  reverence  with  Sister  Justicia,  and  while  the 
wife  held  the  hand,  joined  in  prayer,  the  brave  man  peacefully  closed 
his  eyes  as  if  going  to  slumber.  It  was  the  end. 

The  "  tick,"  "  tick  "  of  the  telegrapher's  key  announced  the  close 
of  the  newspaper's  death-watch  in  these  brief  words:  "General 
Sheridan  died  to-night  of  heart  disease." 

The  death  occurred  exactly  at  10.20  p.  M.,  on  the  5th  of  August, 
1888. 

Mrs.  Sheridan  fell  fainting  to  the  floor  when  she  realized  that  her 
husband  and  her  hero  had  gone  forever  from  her  presence.  Almost 
crazed  with  grief,  she  was  taken  to  her  room.  The  messages  of  sym- 
pathy and  condolence  which  at  once  began  to  pour  in  upon  the  retired 
nook  where  this  saddest,  but  common  human  tragedy,  was  being 
enacted,  it  was  decided  should  be  withheld  from  her  while  the  wound 
was  gaping. 

The  night  passed  and  the  dawn,  as  if  in  tears,  arose  in  a  robe  of 
gray,  dark  mist.  It  covered  water  and  land,  and  hid  the  garish  sun 
from  the  dwellers  in  the  house  of  mourning.  The  children,  who  had 
retired  before  the  last  scene,  had  not  been  called.  Indeed,  the  end 
came  too  sudden  for  that.  The  scene  in  the  morning  was  a  sad  one. 
Mary  realized  the  actualities  of  the  situation  in  a  keener  degree  than 
her  sisters,  the  twins,  Irene  and  Louise.  All  were  extremely  fond  of 
their  father,  and  he  petted  and  played  with  them,  as  well  as  with  little 
Phil,  who  was  his  heart's  delight.  The  grief  of  these  little  ones  was 
pitiable.  They  wept  as  if  their  hearts  would  break.  Mary  sobbed  by 
herself  in  a  chair,  little  Irene  flung  herself  on  a  rug  and  cried  aloud, 
her  sister  Louise  doing  likewise,  and  little  "  Phil"  wept  in  sympathy,  not 
actually  understanding  what  it  was  all  about.  The  governess  endeav- 
ored to  assuage  their  grief,  and  finally  dried  their  eyes.  Mrs.  Sheridan, 
completely  exhausted,  and  now  suffering  the  reaction  from  the  strain  of 
the  anxious  weeks  just  past,  remained  in  her  chamber.  It  was  decided 
advisable  to  refrain  from  consulting  her  regarding  the  funeral  arrange- 


382  THE  LIFE  OF 

ments  until  the  afternoon.     The  meals  of  the  family  were  taken  down 
to  the  cottage  from  the  hotel  by  the  ^ae  wants. 

The  appearance  of  the  body  as  it  lay  in  that  front  room  was  sadly 
impressive.  A  white  pall  covered  it,  and  when  the  upper  portion  was 
drawn  away  it  disclosed  the  face  and  the  broad  chest.  The  latter  was 
covered  only  by  a  gauze  shirt.  But  slight  emaciation  was  distin- 
guishable, save  in  the  arms  and  legs ;  the  face  was  sunken  a  little  in 
the  cheeks,  but  the  broad  chin  and  the  firm  lips  retained  the  normal 
characteristics  in  death.  The  chin  was  clean  shaven,  and  the  iron- 
gray  hair  was  brushed  back  from  the  broad,  massive  brow. 

The  day  was  occupied  fully,  however  sadly,  with  preparations  for 
the  interment,  and  in  the  receipt  of  the  numerous  messages  which  came 
pouring  in  from  all  quarters.  The  news  of  this  death  showed  how 
closely  the  people  held  the  memory  of  the  heroes  who,  like  Sheridan, 
had  so  powerfully  aided  in  saving  the  Nation.  Mrs.  Sheridan  was  left 
undisturbed  in  the  physical  prostration  that  had  so  inevitably  followed 
the  months  of  sorrow  and  tender  watchfulness.  The  embalmer  came 
and  performed  his  work.  The  hero's  body  was  placed  in  its  casket, 
rich,  though  simple  in  its  belongings.  General  Sheridan  had  always 
expressed  himself  as  opposed  to  funeral  pageants,  and  he  had  signified 
a  wish  as  to  the  resting-place  of  his  body.  When  he  commanded  the 
escort  at  John  A.  Logan's  funeral,  and  laid  his  comrade  to  rest  in 
Arlington,  he  expressed  his  desire  to  be  buried  there  also.  He  was  a 
soldier.  So  he  had  lived  and  wrought ;  so  he  had  died  ;  and  so  he 
would  lie  —  attended  by  soldiers,  and  buried  among  his  dead  comrades. 
The  regulations  of  the  army  he  commanded  provide  for  the  escort 
honors  to  be  paid  to  one  of  his  rank.  The  burial  services  of  his  church 
are  stately  enough  for  any  man,  however  renowned  ;  for  any  life,  how- 
ever lowly. 

The  tributes  paid  to  the  man  as  well  as  soldier  lying  dead  at 
Nonquit  were  of  the  most  remarkable  character.  None  of  them  were 
merely  ceremonial  —  even  those  that  etiquette  required  also  bore  in  the 
formal  word  the  touch  of  a  tear  or  the  faint  sound  of  a  sob.  As  if  at 
a  sudden  word,  but  by  common  impulse  and  with  one  feeling  of  grief, 
the  flag  floated  everywhere  at  half  mast.  Nonquit  is  but  a  little  sea- 
side hamlet,  whose  owners  jealously  guard  their  domain  from  intru- 
sion by  the  sight-seeing  horde.  Their  action  in  this  regard  proved 
useful  during  the  days  which  give  to  the  place  a  sad  page  in  American 
history.  Seven  miles  from  New  Bedford,  without  railroad  communi- 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  383 

cation,  and  having  but  one  little  wheezy  steamboat  to  ply  to  and  fro, 
there  was  no  pressure  from  thjs  outside  world. 

As  the  senior  physician  and  surgeon  in  charge,  Major  O'Reilly's 
certificate  as  to  the  cause  of  death  is  part  of  this  narrative.  It  reads 
as  follows : 

General  Sheridan  died  at  10.20  this  evening.  The  immediate  cause 
of  his  death  was  heart  failure.  The  remote  cause  was  disease  of  the 
mitral  and  aortic  valves,  the  existence  of  which  was  known  to  his  phy- 
sicians, to  himself,  and  to  his  family,  in  November  of  last  year.  The 
complications  which  have  occurred  have  been  nervous  exhaustion,  pul- 
monary anasarctions,  pneumonia,  pulmonary  oegeria,  anasarca,  and 
hemorrhages.  The  last  day  of  his  life  was  somewhat  restless,  but  not 
more  so  than  he  has  been  several  times  since  his  arrival  at  Nonquit. 
At  about  9.30  symptoms  of  heart  failure  suddenly  appeared.  The 
remedies  which  had  hitherto  been  successful  were  vigorously  applied, 
but  proved  ineffectual,  and  he  sank  rapidly,  dying  painlessly  at  the  hour 
named. 

ROBERT  M.  O'REILLY, 
Surgeon    United  States  Army. 
WASHINGTON  MATHEWS, 

Assistant  Surgeon  United  States  Army. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  immediate  cause  of  death  was  the 
failure  of  the  heart  to  act.  If  it  were  possible  to  reach  the  remote 
cause  of  that  fatal  weakening,  first  of  the  valves  of  the  heart,  and  then 
of  the  walls  also,  in  so  strong  and  robust  a  man  as  Sheridan,  it  may 
well  be  conceived  that  it  was  the  result  of  some  one  of  those  magnifi- 
cent strains  of  his  heroic  nature,  the  results  of  which  have  made  his 
name  so  memorable  among  a  patriot  soldiery,  and  so  great  in  the  esti- 
mation of  those  who  esteem  military  genius  and  renown.  Perhaps,  at 
Winchester  and  up  the  valley,  when  he  rode  "  to  save  the  day,"  the 
fierce  heart  throbs  tore  all  the  strong  valves,  and  gave  the  first  blow 
which  finally  in  the  long  series  of  activities  that  followed,  left  him  cold 
and  lifeless  at  Nonquit. 

Dr.  Pepper  gave  to  the  public  press,  after  the  general's  death,  his 
professional  opinion  of  the  case  and  its  treatment.  He  said  : 

"At  the  time  of  the  early  attacks  the  heart  failure  was  so  intense 
that  the  walls  of  the  heart  contracted  very  imperfectly  and  the  cavities 
became  rapidly  and  greatly  dilated.  This  was  much  increased  by  the 
mechanical  obstruction  due  to  the  organic  disease  of  the  valves  of  the 


384  THE  LIFE  OF 

heart,  which  had  existed  for  many  months.  In  this  state  some  heart- 
clot  must  have  formed,  and  for  son/ev  time  very  alarming  attacks  re- 
curred unexpectedly,  apparently  due  to  the  sudden  detachment  of  por- 
tions of  clot  which  were  carried  from  the  right  side  of  the  heart  into 
the  lungs.  The  most  alarming  spell  was  connected  with  the  develop- 
ment of  an  extensive  infraction  in  the  lower  lobe  of  the  right  lung, 
followed  by  the  development  of  aneurisms  around  it.  For  weeks  this 
was  a  constant  source  of  anxiety,  but  gradually  it  cleared  away,  the 
heart  gained  power,  its  cavities  contracted  better,  and  the  spells  above 
mentioned  grew  less  frequent  and  less  serious. 

"  When  the  heart  trouble  was  at  its  worst  grave  symptoms  of  con- 
gestion showed  themselves  everywhere.  The  brain  suffered,  the  liver 
and  stomach  were  so  much  engorged  that  hemorrhages  occurred  and 
were  almost  fatal.  From  the  shock  the  kidneys  also  suffered,  as  was 
shown  by  a  scanty  albuminous  urine  and  swelling  of  the  feet.  But  as 
the  heart  slowly  improved  all  these  complications  subsided.  This  was 
very  gratifying,  and  justified  the  hope  that  gradually  there  would  be  a 
return  to  better  health  if  no  untoward  complications  should  occur  again. 
But  inevitably  a  patient  with  extensive  organic  disease  of  the  heart  (as 
in  all  probability  existed  here) ,  with  fragments  of  heart-clot  adhering 
to  the  lining,  is  continually  in  danger  of  fatal  heart  failure,  and  of 
sudden  detachments  of  fragments  of  such  size  that  if  carried  to  the 
lungs  almost  immediately  fatal  results  will  follow.  On  Sunday  even- 
ing, at  a  time  when  all  the  general's  symptoms  were  more  encouraging 
than  at  any  previous  period,  the  above  occurred  with  such  severity  as 
to  make  all  efforts  to  sustain  the  heart  and  lungs  unavailing." 

While  the  body  of  their  sacred  dead  was  being  arranged  in  the 
villa  by  the  sea  for  its  final  interment,  everywhere,  officially  and 
personally,  the  Nation,  the  states,  the  men  of  the  war,  the  citizens  who 
honored  and  the  friends  who  loved  him,  were  sending  their  tokens  of 
sympathy  and  their  proffers  of  service,  in  behalf  of  his  memory  and  to 
the  family  Sheridan  has  left,  for  they  all  remembered  that  he  had  said 
"Every  service  I  ever  performed  for  my  country  was  due  to  her 
from  me,  and  if  I  have  contributed  in  my  humble  way  to  her  success 
and  glory,  I  am  proud  of  it." 

Among  the  first  of  these  tokens  came  the  personal  words  of  Presi- 
dent Cleveland,  who  immediately  on  receipt  of  the  news  of  the  gen- 
eral's death,  sent  to  Mrs.  Sheridan  the  following  telegram : 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 


THE  SHERIDAN  COTTAGE  AT  NONQUIT, 

WHERE  THE  GENERAL  DIED,  AUGUST  5,  1888. 

EXECUTIVE  MANSION,          ) 
WASHINGTON,  August  6,  1888.  j 

While  the  Nation  mourns  its  loss  and  shares  your  sorrow,  let  me 
express  to  you  my  personal  grief  and  most  sincere  condolence. 

GROVER  CLEVELAND. 

When  Congress  met  at  noon  of  the  6th,  the  following  message  was 
received : 

To  THE  SENATE  AND  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES  : 

It  becomes  my  painful  duty  to  announce  to  the  Congress  and  to 
the  people  of  the  United  States  the  death  of  Philip  Sheridan,  General 
of  the  Army,  which  occurred  at  a  late  hour  last  night  at  his  summer 
home  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts. 

The  death  of  this  valiant  soldier  and  patriotic  son  of  the  Republic, 
though  his  long  illness  has  been  regarded  with  anxiety,  has,  nevertheless, 
shocked  the  country  and  caused  universal  grief. 

He  had  established  for  himself  a  strong  hold  in  the  hearts  of  his 
countrymen,  who  soon  caught  the  true  meaning  and  purpose  of  his 
soldierly  devotion  and  heroic  temper.  His  intrepid  courage,  his  stead- 
fast patriotism,  and  the  generosity  of  his  nature  inspired  with  peculiar 
warmth  the  admiration  of  all  the  people. 

25 


386  THE  LIFE  OF 

Above  his  grave,  affection  for  the  man  and  pride  in  his  achieve- 
ments will  struggle  for  mastery,  and  too^rnuch  honor  cannot  be  accorded 
to  one  who  was  so  richly  endowed  with  all  the  qualities  which  make 
his  death  a  national  loss. 

GROVER  CLEVELAND. 
EXECUTIVE  MANSION,  WASHINGTON,  August  6, 


The  Secretary  of  War  sent  his  condolence  in  the  following  dispatch  : 

WASHINGTON,  August  6,  1888. 

DEAR  MRS.  SHERIDAN  :  It  was  the  most  painful  surprise  to  hear 
of  General  Sheridan's  death.  Accept  my  heartfelt  sympathy  in  your 
overwhelming  sorrow.  The  Nation  mourns  with  you  a  great  and 
noble  soldier,  and  while  I  feel  deeply  his  loss  to  the  service  and  the 
department,  yet  at  this  moment  the  personal  bereavement  is  first  in  my 
thoughts  as  I  recall  his  valuable  friendship  and  the  many  delightful 
memories  I  shall  ever  associate  with  him. 

W.  E.  ENDICOTT,   Secretary  of  War. 

By  order  of  the  department,  as  usual,  "  the  flags  will  be  placed  at 
half  mast  at  all  military  posts  and  stations,  seventeen  minute  guns  will 
be  fired  on  the  day  after  the  receipt  of  this  order,  and  the  usual  badge 
of  mourning  will  be  worn  for  thirty  days." 

The  senior  major-general  of  the  army,  commanding  the  Division 
of  the  Atlantic,  received  the  order  to  take  charge  of  the  burial  of  his 
comrade,  as  follows : 

WAR  DEPARTMENT,          ") 
WASHINGTON,  August  6,  1888.  } 
GENERAL  J.  M.  SCHOFIELD, 

GOVERNOR'S  ISLAND,  NEW  YORK  HARBOR. 

The  following  dispatch  received  from  Colonel  Sheridan  this  morn- 
ing : 

"NoNQyiT,  MASS.,  August  6,  1888. 
44  SECRETARY  OF  WAR,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

"It  is  Mrs.  Sheridan's  wish  that  her  husband  should  be  buried  with 
military  honors,  and  that  at  the  same  time  there  should  be  no  display 
beyond  what  pertains  to  a  strictly  military  funeral  in  proper,  respect  to 
his  rank.  Will  you  be  kind  enough  to  authorize  such  funeral  and 
place  matters  under  charge  of  General  Schofield  ?  The  funeral  will 
be  in  Washington,  but  when  and  where  I  cannot  yet  say.  Perhaps  it 
w.ould  be  well  for  General  Schofield  to  come  up  here. 

"M.  V.  SHERIDAN." 

I  leave  it  to  your  discretion  whether  to  go  to  Nonquit,  as  requested. 
You  are  hereby  directed  to  make  the  necessary  arrangements  in  regard 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  ^87 

to  the  funeral,  including  the  funeral  train  to  bear  the  body  to  Washing- 
ton. By  request  of  Mrs.  Sheridan,  her  husband  will  be  "  buried  with 
military  honors,  with  no  display  beyond  what  pertains  to  a  strictly 
military  funeral  in  proper  respect  to  his  rank."  This  request  will  be 
strictly  complied  with  and  the  escort  will  conform  to  regulation  631, 
funeral  escort  to  general-in-chief,  and  you  will  issue  orders  for  such 
troops  to  assemble  as  may  be  necessary  to  complete  this  escort.  You 
will  detail  the  necessary  guard  and  bearers  to  go  to  Nonquit  and 
accompany  the  remains  to  Washington.  Please  ascertain  from  Mrs. 
Sheridan  whom  she  wishes  to  be  designated  in  orders  as  pall-bearers. 
Please  inform  me  from  time  to  time  in  regard  to  arrangements/  The 
place  of  burial  and  day  of  funeral  still  undecided.  Your  dispatch  to 
adjutant-general  of  this  morning  received. 

WILLIAM  C.  ENDICOTT,  Secretary  of  War. 

The  funeral  escort,  under  regulation  631,  is  a  regiment  of  infantry, 
a  battalion  of  cavalry,  and  two  light  batteries.  Mrs.  Sheridan  in  her 
decision  necessarily  excluded  all  participation  in  the  actual  pageant  of 
the  many  societies  and  bodies  that  were  ready,  even  eager,  by  their 
active  presence  to  do  such  honor  as  they  could  to  their  well-beloved 
comrade.  Her  decision,  however,  met  general  approval. 

Congress  at  once  acted  in  sympathy  with  the  general  feeling  of  sor- 
row, by  adjourning  on  the  6th  instant  in  token  of  respect,  after  passing 
the  resolutions  here  given  : 

In  the  Senate  Mr.  Edmunds,  of  Vermont,  offered  these  resolutions  : 

Resolved,  That  the  Senate  has  learned  with  profound  regret  of  the 
death  of  Philip  H.  Sheridan,  late  General  of  the  Armies  of  the  United 
States. 

Resolved,  That  the  Senate  hereby  expresses  its  grateful  sense  of 
his  great  and  patriotic  services  in  the  cause  of  his  country,  its  deep 
sensibility  of  the  loss  which  the  Nation  has  sustained  in  his  death,  and 
its  sympathy  with  his  family  in  their  bereavement. 

Resolved,  That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  forwarded  to  the 
family  of  the  deceased. 

Mr.  Edmunds  said:  "It  is  quite  unnecessary  for  any  Senator  to 
submit  any  observation  in  support  of  these  resolutions.  The  career  of 
General  Sheridan  has  been  so  conspicuous,  so  grand,  so  noble,  and  so 
patriotic  that  any  words  which  I  could  use  in  respect  of  his  memory, 
or  in  praise  of  his  career,  would  be  like  gilding  refined  gold,  or  paint- 
ing the  lily.  I  therefore,  for  my  part,  leave  them  to  the  judgment  of  the 
Senate  without  any  further  observation." 


?88  THE  LIFE  OF 

The  resolutions  were  adopted  unanimously.  Subsequently  a  bill 
was  introduced  by  Mr.  Farwell,  of  Illhat>*6,and  referred  to  the  Commit- 
tee on  Pensions,  granting  a  pension  of  $5 ,000  a  year  to  Mrs.  Sheridan. 
This  bill  has  been  so  modified  in  the  House  of  Representatives  as  to 
make  the  sum  $3,500.  In  that  form  it  will  doubtless  become  a  law. 

The  President's  message  announcing  the  death  of  General  Sheridan 
having  been  presented  and  read,  Mr.  Hawley,  of  Connecticut,  rose  and 
said  : 

"Nothing  that  I  could  say,  Mr.  President,  is  needed  to  set  forth  the 
loss  which  the  country  has  sustained  by  the  death  of  the  able,  brilliant, 
magnificent  soldier  and  beloved  general,  Philip  H.  Sheridan.  I  have 
just  learned  of  the  course  taken  by  the  House,  and  I  now  send  to  the 
desk  a  resolution  for  which  I  ask  immediate  consideration  : 

"Resolved,  That  the  Chair  is  requested  to  appoint  a  committee  of 
seven  Senators  to  attend  the  funeral  services  of  the  late  General  Sher- 
idan." 

The  resolution  was  adopted,  and  Senators  Hawley,  Connecticut, 
Manderson,  Nebraska,  Cullom,  Illinois,  Stewart,  Nevada,  Hampton, 
South  Carolina,  Gibson,  Louisiana,  and  Gray,  Delaware,  were  ap- 
pointed. The  Senate  at  1.55,  adjourned. 

The  session  of  the  House  was  opened  with  prayer  by  the  Rev.  W. 
H.  Milburn,  D.  D.,  the  chaplain.  His  reference  to  General  Sheridan's 
death  was  as  follows  : 

O  Eternal  God,  with  the  Nation  we  stand  awestricken  to-day  by 
the  startling  intelligence  that  the  illustrious  career  of  the  General  of  the 
Army  is  ended.  The  brilliant  story  of  his  achievements  is  written  in 
the  annals  of  the  country,  and  he  has  gone  to  the  bar  of  history.  We 
commend  to  Thy  Almighty  protection  and  fatherhood  the  wife  who  has 
been  widowed  and  the  children  who  have  been  made  fatherless. 

A  message  from  the  President  having  been  received  announcing 
the  death  of  General  Philip  H.  Sheridan,  Mr.  Wheeler,  of  Alabama, 
said  that  this  was  the  third  time  in  the  history  of  the  government  that 
the  President  had  announced  the  death  of  the  commander  of  the  armies 
of  the  United  States.  He  had  .prepared  resolutions  appropriate  to  the 
occasion,  but  he  was  informed  that  the  Military  Committee  had  agreed 
to  a  series  of  resolutions,  and  he  would  therefore  refrain  from  offering 
his. 

Representative  Hooker,  of  Mississippi,  offered  these  resolutions  : 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  389 

Resolved,  That  this  House  has  learned  with  profound  grief  of  the 
death  of  General  Philip  Henry  Sheridan,  General  commanding  of  the 
armies  of  the  United  States. 

Resolved,  That  as  a  mark  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  the  deceased, 
this  House  do  now  adjourn. 

Resolved,  That  the  Speaker  of  the  House  is  directed  to  transmit  to 
the  widow  of  the  deceased  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  and  the  assur- 
ance of  the  sympathy  of  the  House  in  the  loss  which  she  has  sustained 
in  common  with  the  people  of  the  Xation. 

Resolved,  That  the  Speaker  of  this  House  appoint  a  committee  of 
seven  members  to.  confer  with  a  like  committee  of  the  Senate,  and, 
after  consultation  with  the  family  of  the  deceased,  to  take  such  action 
as  may  be  appropriate  in  regard  to  the  public  obsequies  of  General 
Sheridan. 

Mr.  Hooker,  of  Mississippi,  himself  an  ex-Confederate  soldier,  briefly 
addressed  the  House  in  eulogy  of  the  deceased  soldier.  Descended 
from  a  race  of  people  which  had  given  to  the  world  in  the  old  country 
and  in  the  new  the  greatest  commanders  of  any  people  on  earth,  the 
career  of  the  distinguished  military  man  whom  these  resolutions  were 
designed  to  honor  was  a  mark  of  the  singular  fact  that  "  in  this  coun- 
try there  was  no  position,  whether  in  civil  or  in  military  life,  that  was 
not  within  the  reach  of  the  humblest  citizen  of  the  land. 

"  General  Sheridan  inherited  from  his  father  the  fke  and  the  spirit 
of  that  great  Irish  race  that  has  so  successfully  fought  the  battles  of  all 
countries  save  its  own.  At  an  early  day  General  Sheridan  graduated 
from  the  military  academy,  and  was  assigned  to  duty  in  the  army.  He 
obtained  prominence  in  the  late  contest  between  the  states  which  gave  him 
a  position  second  only  to  that  of  the  great  leader  of  the  Federal  Army. 
This  Congress  had,  a  few  weeks  before  his-  death,  conferred  on  General 
Sheridan  the  distinguished  position  of  General  of  the  Armies  of  the 
United  States.  It  had  been  held  by  few  persons,  and  was  considered  a 
mark  of  honor  and  regard  for  General  Sheridan  when  he  yet  lay  on 
his  bed  of  sickness,  which  finally  became  his  couch  of  death.  The 
resolutions  were  designed  to  express  the  universal  grief  and  sorrow  of 
the  Nation  at  the  death  of  the  commander  of  the  armies  of  the  United 
States  and  to  express  sympathy  with  his  bereaved  family." 

The  governor  of  Ohio,  in  which  state  the  general  claimed  citizen- 
ship, issued  this  proclamation  : 


390  THE  LIFE  OF 

To  THE  PEOPLE  OF  OHIO  : 


- 


General  Philip  H.  Sheridan  is  "dead.  He  departed  this  life  yes- 
terday at  Nonquit,  Massachusetts.  He  was  a  citizen  of  Ohio,  but  his 
name  and  fame  belong  among  the  richest  treasures  of  the  Nation. 
Next  after  Grant  and  Sherman  he  was  the  most  illustrious  general  of 
the  war  for  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion.  His  name  was  the 
synonym  of  gallantry.  He  was  the  ideal  field  marshal.  He  led  only 
to  victory.  So  long  as  the  Union  shall  endure  and  human  liberty  be 
cherished  he  will  hold  an  affectionate  place  in  the  hearts  of  his  coun- 
trymen. As  a  slight  appreciation  for  his  heroic  services,  the  flags  on 
all  civil  and  public  buildings  of  the  state  will  be  displayed  at  half-mast 
until  and  including  the  day  of  the  funeral. 

From  nearly  all  the  state  executives  came  some  form  of  public 
sorrow  and  sympathy.  General  Rea,  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  in  General  Order  No.  n,  issued  August 
9th,  paid  a  fitting  and  eloquent  tribute  to  the  life  and  services  of 
General  Sheridan.  The  order  says  that  during  the  year,  4,123  Grand 
Army  of  the  Republic  comrades  have  died,  among  whom  Sheridan 
stands  most  conspicuous.  The  colors  at  the  national  and  department 
headquarters  were  ordered  to  be  draped,  and  the  customary  badge  of 
mourning  to  be  worn  for  thirty  days. 

The  Loyal  Legion,  of  which  Sheridan  was  commander,  paid  its 
tribute  ;  and  the  Massachusetts  Commandery,  as  did  the  state,  asked  to 
be  allowed  to*  appoint  a  guard  of  honor.  This  was  supplied  under 
orders  from  the  War  Department  by  a  detail  of  two  line  and  eight  non- 
commissioned officers  from  Fort  Adams,  who  left  Newport  on  the  8th 
instant  for  Nonquit.  This  detail,  serving  as  a  guard  of  honor  until  the 
body  reached  Washington,  consisted  of  Captain  H.  B.  Anderson,  in 
command  ;  Lieutenant  McCahn,  Sergeants  Greenhault,  Company  L, 
Wayland  Light  Battery  ;  Buchanan,  Company  D  ;  Corporals  Blake, 
light  battery  ;  Hill,,,  Company  G  ;  Beraske,  Company  E  ;  Day  and 
Halpen,  of  fort  battery. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Navy  sent  his  expressions  of  sympathy  and 
the  offer  of  a  naval  escort,  in  this  dispatch  : 

I  must  express  to  you  my  great  personal  regret  and  sorrow,  and 
that  of  the  whole  naval  service,  at  the  death  of  General  Sheridan.  It  is 
the  desire  of  this  department  to  participate  in  all  ceremonies  which 
may  take  place  in  recognition  of  his  great  services  to  his  country,  and 
to  mark  the  high  esteem  in  which  such  services  are  held  by  his  coun- 
trymen. The  President  directs  me  to  place  at  your  service  an  escort 
of  naval  vessels  if  your  plans  should  contemplate  returning  by  water. 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN. 

The  death  of  their  gallant  commander  was  announced  to  the  sol- 
diers of  the  United  States  Army  in  the  following  general  order,  issued 
the  next  day : 

"  WAR  DEPARTMENT,  ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S  OFFICE,  ) 
"  WASHINGTON,  August  6,  1888.          j 

".With  profound  sorrow  the  Secretary  of  War  announces  to  the  army 
that  General  Sheridan  died  last  evening  at  Nonquit,  in  the  State  of 
Massachusetts. 

"  He  was  born  March  6,  1831.  Upon  graduating  from  West  Point 
he  entered  the  army  July  i,  1853,  as  brevet  second  lieutenant  of  the 
First  Infantry.  His  first  service  was  on  the  frontier  of  Texas  ;  then  in 
Oregon  a^nd  California,  engaged  against  hostile  Indians  in  the  Yakima 
expedition  and  the  defense  of  the  Cascades.  In  1861,  having  reached 
the  grade  of  captain  in  the  Thirteenth  Infantry,  he  was  placed  on  duty 
as  chief  quartermaster  and  commissary  of  the  army  under  Major-Gen- 
eral Curtis  in  the  Pea  Ridge  Campaign,  and  subsequently  as  quarter- 
master at  Major-General  Halleck's  headquarters  in  the  advance  on 
Corinth,  Mississippi.  He  was  appointed  colonel  of  the  Second  Mich- 
igan Cavalry,  May  25,  1862;  brigadier-general  of  volunteers  July  i, 
and  major-general  of  volunteers  December  31,  of  the  same  year,  having 
participated  with  distinction  in  numerous  engagements  in  the  armies 
of  the  Ohio  and  Cumberland  until  April  4,  1864,  when  he  was  selected 
to  command  the  cavalry  corps  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  sub- 
sequently the  Middle  Military  Division  and  the  Army  of  the  Shenan- 
doah. 

"For  the  gallantry,  military  skill  and  courage  displayed  in  the 
brilliant  series  of  victories  achieved  by  his  army  in  the  Valley  of  the 
Shenandoah,  especially  at  Cedar  Run,  he  received  the  thanks  of  Con- 
gress and  was  appointed  brigadier-general  of  the  Army  of  the  United 
States,  September  20,  1864,  and  November  8,  1864,  was  promoted  to 
major-general  United  States  Army  'for -the  personal  gallantry,  mili- 
tary skill,  and  just  confidence  in  the  courage  and  patriotism  of  his 
troops  displayed  by  him  on  the  nineteenth  day  of  October,  at  Cedar 
Run,  whereby,  under  the  blessing  of  Providence,  his  routed  army  was 
reorganized,  a  great  national  disaster  averted,  and  a  brilliant  victory 
achieved  over  the  rebels,  for  the  third  time,  in  pitched  battle,  within 
thirty  days.' 

"  In  the  final  campaign,  which  resulted  in  the  surrender  of  General 
Lee's  army,  he  bore  a  distinguished  part. 


392  THE  LIFE  OF 

"  Since  the  close  of  the  war  he  commanded  successively  the  Military 
Division  of  the  Southwest,  the  GulfV  the  Fifth  Military  District,  the 
Department  of  the  Missouri  and  the  Division  of  the  Missouri.  He 
was  appointed  lieutenant-general  March  4,  1869,  and  assumed  command 
of  the  Army  of  the  United  States,  November  i,  1883.  In  recognition 
of  his  military  services  the  grade  of  general  was  revived  by  Congress, 
to  which  he  was  appointed  June  i,  1888.  These  achievements  placed 
him  in  the  front  rank  of  the  great  and  successful  soldiers  of  his  time, 
and  are  recognized  and  acknowledged  at  home  and  abroad.  To  the 
army  his  loss  is  personal  and  irreparable,  but  the  work  that  he  did 
and  the  associations  that  cluster  about  his  name  will  be  a  grateful 
memory  to  its  older,  and  an  inspiration  to  its  younger  officers." 

The  morning  of  the  8th  brought  to  completeness  the  preparations  for 
removal  to  Washington.  The  soldier  lay  in  his  white  lined,  black 
covered  casket,  with  its  heavy  plate  and  handles  of  silver.  Its  only 
inscription  was  this  : 

PHILIP  HENRY  SHERIDAN, 

GENERAL  UNITED  STATES  ARMY, 

BORN  MARCH  6,   1831.     DIED  AUGUST  5,  1888. 

The  room  in  which  the  body  lay  was  kept  fresh  and  cool.  The 
jalousies  were  but  partially  closed.  A  simple  vase  of  flowers,  the  only 
decoration,  perfumed  the  air.  That  portion  of  the  lid  of  the  coffin 
over  the  head  and  chest  of  the  silent  hero  was  laid  back  so  as  to  dis- 
close the  face  and  upper  part  .of  the  body.  Upon  it  lay  the  chapeau, 
sword,  belt,  and  sash  worn  by  the  deceased  officer  as  a  lieutenant-gen- 
eral on  state  occasions.  The  uniform  in  which  the  body  was  clad  was 
that  of  the  grade  from  which  he  was  promoted  during  his  illness.  But 
the  epaulets  carried  the  insignia  of  his  latest  rank  —  the  golden  shield 
of  state  flanked  on  either  side  by  a  large  golden  star.  On  the  white 
metal  scabbard  of  the  sword  were  engraved  the  names  of  the  many 
battles  in  which  Sheridan  had  taken  part.  They  began  at  a  point  im- 
mediately below  the  hilt  of  the  weapon  and  ejided  only  at  the  extreme 
lower  end.  They  were  one  above  the  other,  close  together,  forty  or 
more  in  all. 

The  appearance  of  the  face  was  striking.  There  was  almost  a 
smile  upon  the  lips.  The  whole  aspect  was  one  of  serene  repose.  A 
sharp  contrast  was  presented  by  the  grizzled  hair  upon  the  ttfad,  the 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN.  39$ 

black  bushy  eyebrows,  and  the  silvery  hue  of  the  mustache  and  small 
imperial.  The  entire  mask  was  one  never  to  be  forgotten  by  those 
who  looked  upon  it.  Only  one  hand  was  in  sight.  It  lay  across  the 
breast,  and  between  the  partially  closed  fingers  was  held  a  curiously 
carved  crucifix  of  yellow  ivory. 

The  morning  broke  clear  and  bright.  A  light  northeast  wind  ren- 
dered the  air  cool  and  bracing.  The  cottage  was  outwardly  as  silent 
as  a  tomb.  Colonel  Michael  V.  Sheridan,  with  bowed  head  and  sor- 
rowful demeanor,  was  to  be  seen  at  times  on  the  verandas.  Colonel 
Blunt  and  Captain  S.  C.  Kellogg,  of  the  general's  staff,  passed  in  and 
out.  The  day  dragged  slowly.  In  the  afternoon  the  steamer  Mono- 
hansett  appeared  in  sight  around  the  high  casemented  fort  at  Clark's 
Point,  headed  toward  Nonquit  landing.  At  half-past  4  o'clock  the 
Monohansett  was  at  the  landing.  There  was  a  peculiar  significance 
attached  to  the  selection  of  this  steamboat  to  convey  the  body  of  Sher- 
idan to  New  Bedford.  She  was  employed  in  the  government  service 
during  the  Civil  War,  and  was  used  by  General  Grant  as  his  dispatch 
boat.  Captain  Smith,  who  commanded  her  that  day,  washer  com- 
mander on  the  James  River. 

A  guard  of  honor  composed  of  members  of  the  Loyal  Legion, 
ranged  themselves  in  two  lines  near  the  gangway  of  the  Monohansett 
Just  after  five,  the  procession  moved  to  the  steamboat  landing.  With 
the  casket  came  two  officers  of  the  Grand  Army,  and  twelve  veterans, 
who  bore  on  their  shoulders  the  coffin.  The  silken  folds  of  an  Ameri- 
can ensign  draped  the  head  of  it.  Mrs.  Sheridan,  leaning  on  the  arm 
of  Colonel  Michael  V.  Sheridan,  and  holding  the  hand  of  her  youngest 
child,  little  Phil,  followed.  Mrs.  Michael  V.  Sheridan  led  Mary  Sher- 
idan next.  Then  followed  Sister  Justicia,  of  the  Bon  Scours,  hold- 
ing the  hand  of  Louise,  while  the  little  twin  sister,  Irene,  was  es- 
corted by  the  good  Sister  Urban.  Mrs.  Sheridan's  servant  and  maid 
were  the  next  in  order,  and  they  were  followed  by  Colonel  Blunt,  Dr. 
Mathews,  and  Captain  S.  C.  Kellogg.  Klien,  the  general's  attendant, 
Richard,  his  waiter,  and  Rohrback,  the  general's  clerk,  completed  the 
procession.  Very  slowly  it  moved  toward  the  landing. 

There  was  not  a  person  to  be  seen  on  the  Nonquit  meadows.  There 
was  not  a  single  carriage  to  be  seen,  for,  with  remarkable  delicacy,  the 
surrounding  population  refrained  from  coming  near.  The  settlement 
might  have  been  deserted  so  far  as  any  signs  of  moving  life  outside  the 


394  THE   LIFE  OF 

cottages  and  the  hotel  were  concerned.  At  a  quarter  past  5  o'clock 
the  head  of  the  cortege  passed  HenYy"B.  Peirce,  Secretary  of  State,  of 
Missouri,  and  vice-commander  of  the  Loyal  Legion,  in  charge  of  the 
delegation.  The  members  thereof  present  were  Colonel  Charles 
Devens,  Colonel  Joseph  W.  Gilroy,  General  A.  P.  Martin,  Colonel 
Henry  Stone,  Major  Edward  Dews,  Dr.  J.  H.  Mackie,  Captain  A.  M. 
Dudley,  Lieutenants  F.  S.  GifFord  and  B.  Penniman,  and  Colonel  A.  A. 
Rand,  representing  the  Massachusetts  Commandery  ;  Colonel  William 
Broadhead,  of  the  New  York  Commandery ;  Captain  J.  M.  Lewis,  of 
the  Ohio  Commandery  ;  Colonel  Douglas,  of  the  Rhode  Island  Com- 
mandery ;  and  Major  Farnham  Lyon  and  Lieutenant  Stewart  Draper, 
of  the  Michigan  Commandery.  Colonel  Dudley  represented  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  General  Rae. 
With  uncovered  heads  the  veterans  stood  and  silently  watched  the  pas- 
sage of  the  remains.  The  coffin  was  placed  in  the  open  space  in  front 
of  the  ladies'  cabin  of  the  Monohansett.  Mrs.  Sheridan  kissed  little 
Phil,  and  pressed  the  wondering,  awestruck  boy  to  her  bosom.  Then 
she  embraced  Mary  and  the  twin  girls,  and  turned  with  faltering  steps 
to  the  Monohansett.  The  little  ones  wept  piteously,  and  Mrs.  Colonel 
Sheridan,  in  whose  charge  they  were  left,  endeavored  in  vain  to  assuage 
their  grief.  Mrs.  Sheridan,  Colonel  Sheridan,  and  the  sisters  went  to 
the  ladies'  cabin,  where  they  remained  in  privacy. 

The  departure  from  the  Monohansett  was  made  in  the  same  order 
as  that  of  embarkation.  A  special  train,  of  five  cars  was  in  waiting. 
A  very  large,  yet  silent  and  orderly  crowd  was  in  waiting.  All  the 
bells  in  the  city  were  tolled.  All  flags  on  vessels  and  public  buildings 
were  at  half  mast.  The  coffin  was  placed  in  the  black-draped  space  in 
the  combination  car,  and  rested  on  an  elevated  platform  in  the  centre. 
The  mourners  entered  the  rear  sleeping  coach.  Colonel  Blunt  and  the 
army  officers  took  possession  of  the  second  sleeping  car  and  the  few 
representatives  of  the  press  allowed  on  the  train  were  allotted  the  private 
saloon,  "Idlewild."  In  the  make  up  there  came  first  a  baggage  car,  then 
a  combination  car,  in  which  the  body  was  placed  on  a  platform  covered 
with  black  velvet,  in  the  baggage  compartment.  The  floor  of  this 
compartment  was  covered  with  black  cambric,  and  the  walls  and  roof 
with  alternate  broad  vertical  stripes  of  black  and  white,  continued  into 
the  middle  of  the  monitor  roof  in  wall-tent  form.  On  one  side  of  the 
car,  inside,  were  two  small  flags  and  the  motto,  "  We  mourn  our  heroic 
dead,"  all  covered  with  semi-transparent  black  crape.  Over  the  outer 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

door  was  a  flag.  The  passenger  compartment  was  hung  with  black, 
white,  and  red,  and  the  outside  of  the  car  with  black.  Then  followed 
two  Pullman  cars  and  the  private  car  of  Vice-President  Thompson,  of 
the  Pennsylvania  railroad.  The  last  car  was  occupied  by  Mrs.  Sher- 
idan. The  train  was  drawn  to  Walpole  by  locomotive  No.  108  of  the 
Old  Colony  railroad,  which  was  trimmed  with  bunches  of  black  and 
white  ribbon.  The  train  left  in  charge  of  Conductors  F.  M.  Buzzell 
and  C.  F.  Russell,  Baggage-master  Clarence  Wing,  Engineer  E.  A. 
Barker,  and  Fireman  M.  S.  Kennedy. 

It  was  Mrs.  Sheridan's  desire  that  the  start  should  be  near  sun  down, 
and  the  speed  maintained  a  slow  one.  At  every  station,  as  the  train 
passed,  the  draped  flags  and  masses  of  silent,  uncovered  spectators, 
gave  eloquent  though  unspoken  evidences  of  the  common  feeling  of  loss. 
The  people  remained  till  late  in  the  night  at  all  the  principal  stations, 
and  the  bells  were  tolled  at  Taunton,  Mansfield,  Walpole  —  where  a 
Grand  Army  Post  was  drawn  up  —  at  Putman,  Willimantic,  New  Lon- 
don, New  Haven,  Hartford,  Bridgeport,  and  until  it  reached  Harlem 
in  the  early  dawn  at  4.55  of  the  9th.  In  this  way  the  pressure  of  the 
crowds  in  New  York  was  avoided.  The  transfer  to  the  waiting  rail- 
road ferry-boat  was  speedily  and  orderly  made,  and  at  Jersey  City  the 
precious  freight  was  transferred  to  the  Pennsylvania  railroad  with  care, 
kindness,  and  foresight,  as  had  been  arranged.  A  special  train  of  four 
cars  was  provided,  manned,  too,  by  veterans  in  the  employ  of  the  great 
corporation,  who  had  all  served  with  "  Little  Phil"  : — ex-cavalrymen 
all,  their  presence  was  indeed  a  tribute  of  respect. 

The  names  of  these  veterans  deserve  to  be  recorded.  Their  duties 
with  the  train,  and  former  position  in  the  "  service"  are  also  given : 

Engineer — "Joe"  Killey,  formerly  captain  of  Company  A,  First 
New  Jersey  Cavalry.  Served  in  the  army  from  1861  to  1865. 

Fireman — J.  Rodd,  formerly  quartermaster-sergeant  of  the  Sixth 
New  York  Cavalry.  Served  in  the  army  from  1861  to  1865. 

Conductor — W.  W.  Branson,  formerly  second  lieutenant  of  Com- 
pany C,  First  New  Jersey  Cavalry.  Served  in  the  armv  from  1861  to 
1865. 

Baggage-master  —  H.  Heberton,  formerly  lieutenant  in  the  Fif- 
teenth Pennsylvania  Cavalry.  Served  in  the  army  from  1861  to  1863. 


THE  LIFE  OF 


Flagman  —  S.  Craig,  formerly  captain  of  Company  A,  First  New 
York  Cavalry.  Served  in  the  arnoy  from  1861  to  1865. 

Silently  the  cortege  passed  by  the  great  city.  As  silently  it  left 
Jersey  City,  and  passed  on  its  way  to  the  general's  last  resting-place. 
At  various  points  a  few  people  gathered.  Demonstration  was  carefully 
avoided  by  halting  outside  Philadelphia,  and  at  Baltimore  by  taking  the 
Potomac  route,  which,  with  its  tunnels,  enabled  keeping  out  of  sight. 

The  arrival  at  Washington  was  known  and  the  people  in  large  num- 
bers, in  silence,  and  with  uncovered  heads,  paid  their  tribute  to  him 
who  was  well  and  personally  known  among  them.  It  was  3.17  P.  M. 
when  the  cortege  entered  the  Baltimore  and  Potomac  Depot.  It  was 
met  by  General  Schofield,  and  Lieutenants  Sawyer,  Bliss,  and  Pitcher, 
of  his  staff,  a  Guard  of  Honor  from  the  District  of  Columbia  Command- 
ery,  Loyal  Legion,  and  Troop  B,  of  the  Fourth  Cavalry,  Captain  Law- 
ton  in  command.  As  the  train  slowed  into  the  station  eight  sergeants 
of  the  Third  Artillery,  under  command  of  Lieutenant  Danes,  marched 
up  the  platform  and  formed  in  line.  After  the  departure  of  Mrs.  Sheri- 
dan with  her  father  and  sister,  the  artillery  sergeants  took  the  casket 
from  the  car  in  which  it  made  the  journey  from  Nonquit  and  bore  it 
to  a  gun  caisson  belonging  to  the  Third  Artillery,  which  was  draped 
with  flags  festooned  with  crape.  As  the  caisson  bearing  the  body  left 
the  station,  Troop  B,  of  the  Fourth  Cavalry,  fell  into  line  in  front  and 
escorted  the  procession  up  Pennsylvania  Avenue  to  Fifteenth  Street,  and 
to  St.  Matthew's  Church. 

Following  the  caisson  in  carriages  were  General  Schofield  and  staff, 
Dr.  O'Rielly,  Colonel  Blunt,  and  the  Guard  of  Honor  from  the  local 
commandery,v'Loyal  Legion.  As  the  body  reached  the  church  door  it 
was  met  by  a  pKocession  of  the  clergy  and  the  sanctuary  boys  singing 
the  "Miserere." 

After  the  casket  had  been  placed  upon  the  catafalque  the  prelimi- 
nary burial  service  was  recited,  the  choir  singing  a  funeral  hymn.  The 
services  concluded,  the  little  company  immediately  left  the  church. 

Only  the  final  services  remained  !  only  the  requiem  !  only  the  funeral 
pageant !  Then  laid  away  among  his  dead  —  our  soldier  will  be  at  rest. 

Many  poetical  tributes  have  already  been  paid  his  memory,  among 
them  being  those  of  Walt  Whitman,  David  Graham,  Adee,  and  others. 
But  the  finest  of  these  is  from  the  pen  of  Richard  Watson  Gilder,  the 
poet-editor  of  the  Century.  It  was  published  in  the  Critic,  and  bore 
the  title  "  Grant,  Sherman,  Sheridan." 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

Quietly,  like  a  child 

That  sinks  in  slumber  mild, 

No  pain  or  troubled  thought  his  well-earned  peace  to  mar, 
Sank  into  endless  rest  our  thunderbolt  of  war. 

Though  his  the  power  to  smite, 

Quick  as  the  lightning's  light  — 
His  single  arm  an  army,  and  his  name  a  host, 
Not  his  the  love  of  blood,  the  warrior's  cruel  boast. 

But  in  the  battle's  flame 

How  glorious  he  came  ! — 

Even  like  the  white-combed  wave  that  breaks  and  tears  the  shore, 
While  wreck  lies  strewn  behind,  and  terror  flies  before. 

'Twas  he, —  his  voice,  his  might, — 

Could  stay  the  panic-flight, 

Alone  shame  back  the  headlong,  many-leagued  retreat, 
And  turn  to  evening  triumph  morning's  foul  defeat. 

He  was  our  modern  Mars, 

Yet  firm  his  faith  that  wars 

Erelong  would  cease  to  vex  the  sad,  ensanguined  earth, 
And  peace  forever  reign,  as  at  Christ's  holy  birth. 

Blest  land,  in  whose  dark  hour 

Doth  rise  to  mightiest  power 

No  dazzler  of  the  sword  to  play  the  tyrant's  part, 
But  patriot-soldiers,  true  and  pure  and  high  of  heart! 

Of  such  our  chief  of  all ; 

And  he  who  broke  the  wall 

Of  civil  strife  in  twain,  no  more  to  build  or  mend; 
And  he  who  hath  this  day  made  Death  his  faithful  friend. 

And  now  above  his  tomb 

From  out  the  eternal  gloom 

"  Welcome  "  his  chieftain's  voice  sounds  o'er  the  cannon's  knell; 
And  of  the  three  only  one  stays  to  say  "  Farewell !  " 


397 


tltp  sietwj 


Nor  l£ing,  nor  $eer,  nor  prtoilegeii  lunate  toi)o  stole 
jFrom  ILaftor's  acting  tijetos  its  scants  fcole, 
©n  ti)is  JWan's  stoori  a  ftireling^  lien  iriir  ijoli  ! 
No  iWaster's  priie  unto  tije  t)irtor's  goal, 
Nor  Statecraft's  toftim  in  mean  or  loftg  role, 
2To  i)is  tra^e  ftrain  gatje  fire  or  toisi)  so  tolir! 
iLife's  fame  on  larger  lines  tijat  patriot's  moli, 
Jiutg  simple  east  in  grantrer  totjole! 


f)ottr  all  irear  toijo  for  our  ®nion  fought, 
lot>e  tije  lSrat)e  toijo  for  Hitertg  tjatl)  torougftt, 
tijis  strong  JKlan  toijose  ser^iee  rose  so  granlr, 

toill  fte  toijile  memories  turn    . 
iLifee  some  clear  tarfjite  ligi)t  out  centurietr  um, 
one,  in  truti),  toijo  ftnigtjtlj  tritr  command  ! 


PHILIP  HENRY   SHERIDAN, 

[From  a  Recent  Photograph, ,] 


CHAPTER  XXX. 


SHERIDAN'S  LAST  RIDE. 

LYING    IN     STATE  —  QUAINT     AND    QJJIET    ST.     MATTHEW'S  THE    WIDOW'S    LAST 

FAREWELL  —  THE  DECORATIONS  AND  CATAFALQUE  —  CHANTING  THE  RE- 
QUIEM —  SCENES  IN  THE  CHURCH  —  THE  DISTINGUISHED  CONGREGATION  — 
ALTAR  BOYS  AND  DOMINICAN  MONKS  —  CARDINAL^  GIBBONS'  SERMON  — 
—  THE  FUNERAL  PAGEANT — BUGLER  KIMBALL  SOUNDS  "  TAP-TAPS  "  — 

"PUT  OUT  THE  LIGHTS"  —  "GOOD-NIGHT" — HISTORIC  ARLINGTON  AND 
SHERIDAN'S  GRAVE. 

THE  Church  of  St.  Matthew's,  on  the  corner  of  Fifteenth,  ?nd  H 
Street  Northwest,  is  a  plain,  simple,  puritanical  structure,  at  first 
glance  to  a  stranger's  eye  looking  quite  unlike  a  Catholic  Church.  It 
was  the  centre  of  attraction  on  the  loth  of  August,  for  the  body  of 
a  beloved  soldier  of  the  Republic  lay  there  in  state,  ere  removal  to  its 
final  resting-place  at  Arlington. 

Before  the  public  was  admitted,  just  before  8  A.  M.,  Mrs.  Sheridan, 
accompanied  by  her  father  and  mother,  General  and  Mrs.  Rucker,  her 
sisters,  and  Colonel  M.  V.  Sheridan,  entered  the.  simple  church  build- 
ing. A  special  requiem  mass  was  celebrated  by  the  pastor,  Father 
Kervick,  and  then  the  church  was  left  to  the  wife  and  mother  and  her 
sacred  dead.  Ere  the  attendant  guard  of  honor  retired,  the  coffin  lid 
was  removed  for  the  first  time  since  leaving  Nonquit,  so  that  the  face 
and  bust  of  the  dead  lover  and  husband  might  be  seen  by  his  devoted 
companion.  Who  shall  intrude  upon  that  holy  communion  —  that 
sacred  association  of  the  "quick  and  the  dead"?  In  solemn  stillness 
—  alone  —  the  sorely  afflicted  lady  was  left  to  such  sorrow  and  yet  such 
rapture  of  resolve  as  may  well  be  supposed  to  commingle  over  so  be- 
loved a  form.  At  last  the  father  and  mother  stole  in,  and  found  their 
dear  one  kneeling  still  over  her  dead.  Gently  they  carried  her  away, 
with  that  last  look,  that  last  treasured  glance  of  his  marble  face  and 
noble  head  to  be  carried  forever  in  her  memory.  Only  once  more  was 
the  lid  unfastened.  That  was  when  John  Sheridan,  the  general's 
elder  brother,  a  veteran  of  the  ranks,  an  employing  printer  in  Ohio, 
arrived  from  his  home,  and  desired  to  once  more  look  upon  his  famous 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  401 

brother's  face.  He  is  a  middle-aged,  portly  man,  looking  like  the 
father,  and  as  he  bowed  over  the  casket  the  suppressed  sobs  of  a  strong 
man's  sorrow  were  heard  by  those  in  attendance. 

All  day  the  sympathizing  people  passed  through  the  church  and 
in  long  lines  around  the  coffin.  It  was  Mrs.  Sheridan's  wish,  and  in 
accord  with  her  conception  of  the  general's  desires,  that  the  lid  was 
not  removed.  The  interior  they  saw  was  solemn  and  mournful  in  its 
ensemble.  The  scant  light  through  the  stained  glass  windows  and  the 
flickering  light  of  a  dozen  wax  tapers  but  dimly  outlined  the  scene 
about  the  altar,  while  giving  added  sombreness  to  the  heavy  drapings 
of  crape  that  hung  from  ceiling,  balcony,  and  pillar.  Immediately  be- 
fore the  altar,  on  high  successive  pedestals,  forming  a  graceful  apex, 
rested  the  coffin.  To  the  left,  with  white-gloved  hands  folded  across 
his  breast,  stood  an  artillery-man  in  full  uniform,  with  short  sabre  swing- 
ing at  his  belt,  keeping  silent  guard  over  his  silent  charge.  On  either 
side  of  the  catafalque,  slender  marble  tables  supported  tall  candelabra 
in  which  burned  dimly  the  tapers  required  in  such  church  services. 
At  the  corners  and  further  back,  were  other  candelabra  unlighted,  wait- 
ing for  the  final  mass  and  burial.  Further  back  stood  the  red  throne 
erected  for  the  cardinal,  and  a  pair  of  draped  flags  lent  a  background 
of  slight  color  to  the  dark  decoration  of  the  chancel. 

Over  the  coffin  was  loosely  thrown,  in  sash-like  folds,  a  heavy  silk 
American  flag,  the  red  and  white  stripes  falling  gracefully  on  one  side, 
and  the  blue  ground  with  gold  stars  dropping  on  the  other.  Buried  in 
the  soft  folds  on  the  top  of  the  casket  was  the  dead  general's  sabre, 
with  the  names  of  all  his  battles  and  their  dates  engraved  along  the 
scabbard.  The  sash  of  his  rank,  woven  with  yellow  silk  and  gold 
thread,  lay  folded  across  the  top,  and  the  heavy  gold  tassels  fell  on  one 
side.  The  black-plumed  chapeau  was  there,  not  looking  new  and 
unused,  but  showing  such  marks  of  service  as  the  general  had  given 
it.  At  the  head  of  the  coffin,  as  one  approached  the  altar,  a  tall 
flagstaff  rose  high  above,  bearing  the  identical  corps  flag  which  Sheri- 
dan had  used  at  the  close  of  the  war.  This  was  that  oriflamme  of  red 
with  a  white  star  on  one  side  and  a  white  ground  with  a  red  star  on  the 
other,  which  had  led  the  way  into  many  bloody  fights  and  many  a  bril- 
liant victory.  It  was  the  rally  flag  he  waved  at  Winchester.  It  swung 
heavily  in  the  smoky-laden  atmosphere  of  the  Wilderness.  It  was  seen 
in  the  desperate  charges  of  Todd's  Tavern  ;  on  the  field  where  Stuart 
fell ;  at  Trevilian  Station  ;  from  Staunton  to  Charlottesville  ;  it  rustled 
angrily  in  the  Homeric  fury  of  Five  Forks,  and  waved  in  commanding 
hostility  when  Lee  made  his  last  effort  just  before  the  surrender.  It 


402  THE  LIFE  OF 

is  not  an  established  flag,  but  the  colors  are  of  such  design  and  pattern 
as  the  commander  of  a  corps  may  ch{5osfc  as  his  distinguishing  mark. 
Two  other  old  flags,  of  designs  now  forgotten  and  out  of  service,  were 
back  of  the  coffin.  One  was  the  blue  cavalry  guidon  carried  by 
Sheridan's  troops  in  some  of  his  earlier  cavalry  raids.  Now  the  guidon 
is  of  yellow,  not  blue,  and  of  a  different  pattern.  The  other  flag  held 
associations  of  the  hero's. early  battles,  and  was  that  of  his  division 
headquarters  at  Perryville  and  Stone  River  ;  in  the  Tullahoma  campaign, 
marching,  fighting,  and  bridge  building ;  at  the  front,  flaring  on  the 
fateful  field  of  Chickamauga,  and  rising  in  triumph  up  the  rock-ribbed 
sides  of  Mission  Ridge,  until,  moving  over  its  crest,  this  soiled,  frayed, 
ragged,  battle-riven  emblem  became  the  oriflamme  of  victory. 

The  fronts  of  both  galleries  were  covered  with  large  flags  caught 
up  at  intervals  with  broad  bands  of  black.  Above  the  entrance  on 
the  front  of  the  organ  loft  were  grouped  regimental  and  cavalry  flags, 
fastened  together  by  a  knot  of  black,  with  black  streamers.  The 
altar  was  heavily  draped.  The  candelabra  and  the  marble  figures  on 
either  side  were  draped  with  black.  Two  silk  American  flags  hung 
from  the  wall  above  the  altar.  The  cardinal's  throne  on  the  left  of 
the  altar  was  appropriately  covered,  and  the  front  of  the  pulpit  was 
concealed  by  heavy  black  velvet,  with  deep  silver  fringe.  A  space 
had  been  made  in  front  of  the  altar  by  the  removal  of  four  pews  on 
either  side  of  the  main  aisle,  in  the  centre  of  which  stood  the  cata- 
falque, the  same  that  was  used  in  the  funeral  obsequies  of  King  Al- 
phonso,  held  in  this  church  on  the  death  of  that  king,  several  years  ago. 
It  is  about  four  feet  high,  and  rests  upon  a  broad  base,  which  was  cov- 
ered with  the  national  colors,  bordered  with  a  band  of  black  velvet. 
All  these,  though  subdued,  and  with  the  tokens  of  the  church  services 
everywhere  in  the  foreground,  still  served  to  give  the  spectator  the 
impression  of  military  pomp  and  ceremonial.  The  clinking  of  spurs 
and,  now  and  then,  the  stroke  of  a  sabre  as  it  was  drawn  over  the  tes- 
sellated pavement,  broke  the  usual  quiet  and  repose  of  the  place. 

The  plain  yet  massive  simplicity  of  the  interior,  centering  as  it 
did  on  the  catafalque  and  the  casket  thereon,  enshrouding  in  its  sober 
garb  of  black  and  silver  the  remains  of  the  dead  soldier,  left  nothing 
to  mar  the  sad  harmony  of  the  scene.  By  Mrs.  Sheridan's  request, 
the  floral  tributes,  some  of  great  beauty,  and  all  in  loveliness  and 
abundance,  were  grouped  effectively  on  the  altar  steps.  Masses  of 
flowers  in  various  forms  were  piled  up  under  the  Virgin's  altar  :  The 
shoulder  strap  of  a  general  in  blue  and  yellow  flowers  ;  an  easel  with 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

vines  ;  a  white  cross  from  the  President ;  palms,  clustered  bunches  of 
pond  lilies,  and  a  wreath.  From  Boston  was  sent  a  large  piece  repre- 
senting the  "  Gates  Ajar,"  made  at  the  order  of  a  number  of  United 
States  Senators.  In  height  and  length  it  was  nearly  six  feet,  in  width 
it  was  four  feet.  In  the  centre  were  two  large  pillars,  from  which  gates 
were  hung.  Joining  the  pillars  was  an  arch,  having  in  the  centre  a 
cross  and  a  crown.  Suspended  from  the  arch  was  a  pure  white  dove, 
and  on  the  top  of  each  pillar  was  a  large  star.  Through  the  open  gate 
and  picket  fence  was  a  representation  of  the  Garden  of  Eden,  in  which 
flowers,  roses,  and  ferns  abounded  in  artistic  profusion.  On  the  right 
corner  stood  a  beautiful  bouquet  of  roses  tied  with  satin  ribbon. 
Across  the  front  the  inscription  read,  "  Light  lie  the  earth  on  thee." 
Some  four  thousand  asters,  and  a  large  number  of  crimson  king  carna- 
tions, crysanthemums,  and  roses  were  used  in  this  tribute. 

Mr.  John  W.  Mackey  sent  an  appropriate  gift  —  a  wreath  of  ivy 
intermingled  with  palm  branches.  It  was  worked  in  artistic  taste  and 
attracted  attention  from  its  peculiar  fitness  and  sombre  beauty.  *A11 
day  on  the  loth,  the  long  line  of  silent  spectators  saw  sitting  on  a  step 
of  the  altar  a  sad-faced  colored  man,  in  years  beyond  middle-age. 
The  officer  in  command  spoke  to  him  familiarly,  but  with  respect. 
This  was  Richard,  who  for  over  twenty  years  had  been  the  faithful 
body-servant  of  General  Sheridan.  He  was  the  general's  attendant  in 
health,  was  with  him  in  that  last  desperate  struggle  against  death,  and 
still  on  duty,  sat  there  beside  the  coffin  of  his  benefactor  and  much-loved 
employer. 

The  preparations  for  the  morrow's  funeral  went  on  quietly  and 
steadily.  It  was  to  be  strictly  in  accordance  with  military  regulations, 
even  to  the  use  of  the  artillery  caisson  as  a  bier  for  the  hero's  body. 
Major-General  Schofield,  the  senior  officer  in  the  regular  army,  and 
who  is  now  in  command  of  it,  was  in  charge  of  the  ceremony.  The 
troops  called  for  in  the  following  were  all  ready : 

HEADQUARTERRS  MILITARY  DIVISION  OF  THE  ATLANTIC,  ) 
GOVERNOR'S  ISLAND,  N.  Y.,  Aug.  8,  1888.  J 
Special  Order  No.  160. 

The  following  troops  will  compose  the  military  escort  at  the  funeral 
of  the  late  General  Philip  H.  Sheridan,  commanding  the  Army  of  the 
United  States,  which  is  to  take  place  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  on  Satur- 
day, Aug.  n,  1888  :  A  battalion  of  foot  troops,  to  consist  of  batteries 
F,  First  (Davis'),  I,  Second  (Vose's),  M,  Third  (Kobbe's),  and  H, 
(Story's),  Fourth  Artillery,  Fort  Monroe,  Va.  ;  batteries  A  (Ches- 


404 


THE  LIFE  OF 


ter's),  E  (Lancaster's),  K  (Smith's),  and  L  (Hess'),  Third  Artillery, 
Washington  Barracks,  D.  C.  ;  batteneS  D  (Knower's)  and  G  (Bar- 
stow's),  Third  Artillery,  Fort  McHenry,  Md.,  under  command  of 
Colonel  Horatio  G.  Gibson,  Third  Artillery. 

The  battalion  of  cavalry  (troops  B,  Fourth,  and  B,  Sixth  regi- 
ments), Fort  Myer,  Va.,  Major  Louis  H.  Carpenter,  Fifth  Cavalry, 
commanding. 

Light  Battery  C,  Third  Artillery  (Turnbull's),  Washington  Bar- 
racks, D.  C.  Light  Battery  F,  Fifth  Artillery  (Brinckle's),  Fort 
Hamilton,  N.  Y.  H. 

The  major-general  commanding  will  be  in  command  of  the  funeral 
escort. 

The  artillery  troops  designated  will  so  time  their  departure  from 
their  respective  posts  as  to  arrive  in  Washington  on  Friday  morning, 
the  loth  inst.  They  will  then  proceed  to  Washington  Barracks,  report- 
ing their  arrival  to  the  commanding  officer  of  that  station.  They  will 
take  with  them  their  camp  equipage.  The  cavalry  battalion  will  report 
at  Washington  Barracks  on  the  morning  of  the  nth  inst.,  in  time  to 
take  its  place  in  the  column  for  the  march  to  the  church  and  cemetery. 
The  Quartermaster  Department  will  furnish  all  necessary  arrange- 
me*nts  for  the  transportation  of  these  troops  to  and  in  Washington  and 
return  to  their  posts. 

The  commanding  officer  at  Fort  Adams,  R.  I.,  is  hereby  directed 
to  send  at  once  to  New  Bedford,  Mass.,  two  commissioned  and  eight 
non-commissioned  officers  for  duty  as  guard  over  and  bearers  of  the 
body  of  General  Sheridan  while  being  transferred  on  the  afternoon 
of  the  8th  inst.  from  Nonquit  to  Washington,  D.  C.  The  guard  will 
take  charge  of  the  remains  on  their  arrival  at  New  Bedford,  and  convey 
them  to  the  special  train.  At  Washington  the  guard  will  receive  fur- 
ther orders.  The  Quartermaster  Department  will  furnish  the  neces- 
sary transportation. 

The  depot  quartermaster,  New  York  City,  is  hereby  directed  to 
provide  a  special  funeral  train  to  convey  the  remains  of  General  Sheri- 
dan, and  the  attendants  thereupon,  from  Nonquit,  Mass.,  to  Washing- 
ton, D.  C.,  starting  on  Wednesday,  p.  M.,  August  8,  1888. 

The  commanding  officer,  Washington  Barracks,  will  cause  a  cais- 
son to  be  prepared  to  convey  the  remains  from  the  railroad  depot  to  the 
church  and  from  the  church  to  the  cemetery. 

The  commanding  officer,  Fort  Myer,  will  cause  a  troop  of  cavalry  to 
be  at  the  railroad  depot  in  Washington  on  Thursday,  the  9th  inst.,  to 
meet  the  remains  of  General  Sheridan  and  escort  them  to  their  tem- 
porary resting-place. 

By  command  of  MAJOR-GENERAL  SCHOFIELD. 

WILLIAM  D.  WHIFFLE,  Assistant  Adjutant-General. 
Official,  JOHN  PITCHER,  A.  D.  C. 

The  artillery  command  arrived  at  Washington  on  the  loth,  and 
the  cavalry  upon  the  morning  of  the  nth  instant.  This  battalion  was 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  405 

in  command  of  Captain  Lawton,  of  the  famous  Seventh  Regiment, 
whose  .commander,  Brevet  Brigadier-General  James  W.  Forsyth,  was 
Sheridan's  fellow  cadet,  his  companion  in  arms  on  the  Pacific  coast, 
and  afterwards  and  for  years  his  staff  officer  and  intimate  associate 
and  friend.  Captain  Lawton  is  a  man  of  herculean  mould  and  of 
most  striking  appearance.  His  swarthy  complexion,  black  hair,  and 
soldierly  air  is  enhanced,  as  it  were,  by  his  splendid  reputation  as  an 
Indian  fighter. 

Speaker  Carlisle  appointed  the  following  members  as  the  represen- 
tatives of  the  House  upon  the  joint  Congressional  Committee  to  attend 
General  Sheridan's  funeral :  Messrs.  Hooker,  of  Mississippi ;  Cutcheon, 
of  Michigan  ;  Wheeler,  of  Alabama  ;  Henderson,  of  Illinois  ;  Cox,  of 
New  York  ;  Grosvenor,  of  Ohio,  and  McShane,  of  Nebraska.  Colonel 
Hooker  lost  an  arm  in  the  military  service  of  the  Confederacy,  and 
General  Wheeler,  of  Alabama,  was  Sheridan's  antagonist  in  a  number 
of  hard-fought  skirmishes  and  engagements  in  Tennessee,  Alabama, 
and  Northern  Georgia.  He  was  the  best  Confederate  cavalry  com- 
mander in  that  section,  and  has  often  been  termed,  because  of  his 
stature,  his  audacity,  and  skill  "  the  Sheridan  of  the  South."  A  con- 
current resolution  also  passed  both  houses  of  Congress  to  the  effect  that 
when  the  members  adjourned  on  Friday  it  would  be  to  meet  again  on 
Monday,  in  order  to  allow  the  members  to  attend  the  funeral.  Cards 
of  invitation  to  be  present  at  the  church  and  cemetery  were  issued  from 
army  headquarters.  Engraved  on  note  paper  with  a  heavy  black 
border,  they  read  as  follows  : 

You  are  invited  to  be  present  at  the  funeral  ceremonies  in  honor 
of  General  Sheridan,  which  will  take  place  at  St.  Matthew's  Church, 
Washington,  at  10  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  Saturday,  the  nth  of 
August. 

The  invitations  were  accompanied  by  a  card  of  admission  which 
contained  the  following : 

Admit  bearer  to  funeral  ceremonies  of  General  Sheridan  at  St. 
Matthew's  Church,  at  10  o'clock,  A.  M.,  on  Saturday,  the  nth  of 
August.  Please  be  in  the  church  at  least  ten  minutes  before  10  o'clock. 

The  President  issued  an  order  directing  the  closing  of  the  depart- 
ments and  public  offices  on  the  day  of  the  funeral.  The  invitations  to 
attend  included  the  President  and  Mrs.  Cleveland,  the  members  of 
the  Cabinet  and  the  ladies  of  their  families,  the  judges  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court,  the  judges  of  the  local  courts,  the  members  of 
the  Diplomatic  Corps,  the  members  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Rep- 


406 


THE  LIFE  OF 


resentatives,  and  the  elective  officers  of  both  houses,  all  the  members  of 
the  Catholic  clergy  in  Washington,  au\oi$cers  of  the  Army,  Navy,  and 
Marine  Corps  stationed  in  Washington,  twenty-five  to  the  Grand  Army 
of  the  Republic,  twenty-five  to  the  Loyal  Legion,  eighty  to  the  members 
of  the  press,  and  a  large  number  to  personal  friends  of  the  family. 
The  total  number  of  invitations  issued  was  i  ,500,  and  no  person  was 
admitted  to  the  church  without  a  card  of  admission. 

Colonel  John  M.  Wilson,  Commissioner  of  Public  Buildings  and 
Grounds,  was  selected  to  take  charge  of  the  seating  arrangements  at 
the  church.  He  appointed  the  following  officers  to  assist  him  in  seat- 
ing those  invited  :  Army  —  Major  Thomas  Ward,  Assistant  Adjutant- 
General  ;  Captain  John  G.  Bourke,  Third  Cavalry  ;  Lieutenant  W.  P. 
Duvall,  Fifth  Artillery  ;  Lieutenant  Tkomas  G.  Knox,  First  Cavalry  ; 
Lieutenant  C.  Me  D.  Townsend,  of  the  Engineer  Corps.  Navy  - 
Lieutenant  George  L.  Dyer,  Lieutenant  William  H.  Schuetze,  Past 
Assistant-Engineer  F.  C.  Bieg,  Past  Assistant-Engineer  H.  P.  Nor- 
ton, and  Lieutenant  Randolph  Dickens,  United  States  Marine  Corps. 

The  pall-bearers  were  announced  early  in  the  day  as  follows : 
General  Sherman  ;  Marshal  Field,  of  Chicago  ;  General  Hawley,  of 
the  United  States  Senate  ;  Speaker  Carlisle  ;  Vice-President  Frank 
Thompson,  of  the  Pennsylvania  railroad  ;  General  Wesley  Merritt,  United 
States  Army  ;  the  senior  officer  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic  in 
the  District  of  Columbia  ;  Secretary  Whitney  ;  General  MacFeeley, 
United  States  Army  ;  General  Joseph  Fullerton,  of  St.  Louis  ;  Secretary 
Endicott,  and  G.  W.  Childs.  The  following  officers  of  General  Sheri- 
dan's staff  were  especially  invited  to  attend  the  funeral :  General  J.  W. 
Forsyth,  Colonel  Fred.  D.  Grant,  Colonel  James  F.  Gregory,  Colonel 
George  W.  Davis,  General  J.  W.  and  Colonel  George  S.  Forsyth, 
United  States  Army. 

Brevet  Brigadier-General  Tompkins,  commanding  the  Second 
United  States  Cavalry,  was  placed  in  command  of  the  escort. 

General  Sheridan  commanded  at  the  funeral  of  his  comrade,  John 
A.  Logan,  who,  at  his  own  request,  was  buried  at  Arlington.  The 
general  then  expressed  the  desire  to  find  his  last  resting-place  in  the 
same  historic  ground.  In  accordance  with  this  wish,  on  the  day  pre- 
ceding the  burial,  General  Rucker  (Mrs.  Sheridan's  father),  accom- 
panied by  General  MacFeeley,  Commissary  General,  and  Major 
Lydecker,  of  the  Engineer  Corps,  visited  Arlington  and  made  choice  of 
the  commanding  spot  in  which  our  gallant  leader  is  now  laid  at  rest. 

The  consecration  of  the  grave  was  appropriately  performed  by  the 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  407 

bishop-elect  of  Detroit,  the  Right  Rev.  Thomas  Foley,  whose  brother 
it  was,  as  Bishop  of  Detroit,  who  performed  the  ceremony  at  the 
marriage  of  Philip  Henry  Sheridan  and  Irene  M.  Rucker,  fourteen  years 
before  this  sad  occasion. 

The  heat  of  the  season  compelled  the  pastor  of  St.  Matthew's  to 
limit  the  musical  part  of  the  ceremony  to  the  singing  of  a  single  requiem 
mass.  Before  the  service,  the  choir  of  clergy,  of  whom  there  were  over 
twenty  in  attendance,  chanted  the  "Miserere,"  and  at  the  close  of  the 
service  the  "  Benedictus  "  and  "  Libera  Me."  The  services  in  the 
church  then  did  not  occupy  more  than  an  hour  and  a  half. 

The  morning  broke  with  a  clear,  unclouded  sky,  burning  with  all  the 
fervor  of  an  August  day  in  Washington. 

It  was  on  the  stroke  of  nine  when  with  military  promptness  the 
three  doors  of  St.  Matthew's  Church  were  ^opened,  groups  of  epauleted 
officers  received  friends  and  mourners,  and  escorted  them  to  their  seats. 
There  was  no  confusion  and  hurry  —  white  tickets  to  the  body  of  the 
church,  red  tickets  up-stairs.  The  rusty,  well-worn,  old-fashioned 
pews  had  been  marked  off  into  sections  or  groups,  and  for  an  hour 
they  slowly,  noiselessly  filled  up  :  —  on  the  right  side  near  the  Virgin's 
altar,  the  diplomatic  representatives,  not  more  than  thirty,  and  only 
the  military  attaches  in  uniform.  On  the  other  side  the  committees  of 
the  Senate  and  House,  with  sashes  and  rosettes,  were  quietly  marshaled 
into  place  by  Mr.  Christie,  Deputy  Sergeant-at-Arms  of  the  Senate. 
Famous  people,  statesmen,  soldiers,  sailors,  illustrious  men,  with  names 
of  world-wide  celebrity,  were  escorted  to  the  pews  by  the  martial 
ushers. 

Ingalls,  with  his  keen,  rather  Voltaire-looking  face,  sat,  as  presiding 
officer,  to  the  front  and  right  of  the  Senators.  There  were  noted  among 
others,  Allison,  Morgan,  Evarts,  Dolph,  West,  Hoar,  Dawes,  and 
Edmunds.  The  Representatives  likewise  clustered  in  masses. 

A  voluntary,  which  came  from  the  organ  like  a  wail,  and  all  eyes 
turned  toward  a  small  company,  slowly  led  up  the  centre  aisle  :  Colo- 
nel Michael  V.  Sheridan,  with  the  widow  of  the  general  leaning  on  his 
arm  ;  John  Sheridan,  another  brother,  with  a  striking  resemblance  to 
the  deceased,  portly,  spectacled ;  General  and  Mrs.  Rucker,  with 
other  members  of  the  family,  all  in  deep  mourning.  In  front  of  the 
coffin  were  three  velvet  chairs  and  prie-dieus.  In  the  centre,  Mrs. 
Sheridan,  with  a  brother  on  each  side,  knelt  in  prayer.  Then  another 
group  —  what  might  be  called  the  general's  military  family,  his  aides 
and  companions:  General  J.  W.  Forsyth — "Tony"  Forsyth,  as  the 


408 


THE  LIFE  OF 


army  affectionately  calls  him  —  classmate,  aide,  and  life-long  friend, 
his  hair  silken  and  white  ;  Colonel  Frederick  D.  Grant,  with  the  almost 
startling  resemblance  to  his  father ;  Schuyler  Crosby,  in  deepest  sor- 
row ;  Alger,  of  Michigan,  with  a  military,  well-knit,  keen,  French 
face,  who  carried  Sheridan  his  first  field  commission  ;  Colonel  James 
F.  Gregory,  Colonel  G.  W.  Davis,  and  George  S.  Forsyth,  whom  the 
army  knows  as  "  Sandy,"  famous  in  Indian  and  other  wars,  and  dear 
to  the  dead  commander. 

Priests,  acolytes,  groups  of  boys,  with  purple  and  scarlet  trim- 
mings above  their  white  gowns,  clustered  around  the  altar.  The  church 
began  its  sacred  offices  of  repose  and  intercession.  The  tall  candles 
around  the  bier  were  lighted,  and  burned  freely  in  the  gentle  breeze 
which  escaped  from  the  sultry,  drowsy  sun.  The  chancel  swarmed  with 
clergymen  in  various  stages-  of  authority,  and  all  knelt  as,  following  an 
uplifted  cross,  the  spare  form  of  Cardinal  Gibbons,  robed  in  scarlet, 
wearing  the  beretta,  slowly  moved  from  the  sacristy,  knelt  at  the 
altar,  and  was  escorted  to  the  episcopal  throne. 

As  the  cardinal  bent  in  prayer  there  was  a  rustle  of  interest  as 
another  group  moved  up  the  aisle  under  military  escort  —  the  President, 
Mrs.  Cleveland,  and  Mrs.  Folsom.  Special  chairs  had  been  pro- 
vided, but  the  President  paused  a  moment,  looked  at  the  ostenta- 
tious curules,  and  seated  himself  in  the  modest  pew  behind,  beside  Sec- 
retaries Fairchild  and  Vilas.  In  the  rear  sat  Secretaries  Bayard  and 
Dickinson.  The  pall-bearers  slowly  marched  up  the  further  aisle.  At 
the  head  was  Sherman  —  tall,  erect,  in  full  uniform,  his  fine,  brave 
face  compressed  in  evident  emotion  —  the  last  of  the  heroes  of  our  great- 
est days.  At  his  side  Speaker  Carlisle,  with  thin,  cultured,  intellectual 
face,  and  clear,  penetrating  eye  ;  Hawley,  Augur,  Endicott  and  Whit- 
ney from  the  Cabinet ;  George  W.  Childs,  General  MacFeeley, 
Wesley  Merritt,  Mr.  Lincoln,  of  the  Grand  Army,  and  Marshal 
Field,  of  Chicago — close  friends  or  dear  comrades  of  the  dead  com- 
mander, all  of  them. 

Suddenly,  the  full,  sweet,  sad  resonance  of  the  organ's  wailing 
notes  pealed  through  and  filled  the  church.  The  altar  boys  emerged 
from  the  sacristy  and  ranged  themselves  around  the  bier,  while  the 
sanctuary  filled  up  with  the  clergy. 

The  Dominican  Brothers  chanted  the  "  Miserere."  As  the  solemn 
and  melancholy  notes  struck  on  the  ears  of  the  bereaved  widow,  she  was 
visibly  affected,  and  rested  still  harder  on  Colonel  Sheridan's  arm, 
which  was  supporting  her.  But  a  few  minutes  lasted  this  peal  of 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  409 

anguish  for  a  lost  soul,  and  then  the  organ  gave  forth  a  burst  of  stately 
music  as  the  procession  of  clergy  entered.  Two  altar  boys  bearing 
lighted  candles  led  the  way,  then  came  the  pastors  of  the  various  city 
churches,  next  Father  J.  F.  Mackin,  the  celebrant,  Father  T.  J.  Ker- 
vick,  the  deacon,  and  Father  S.  F.  Ryan,  the  sub-deacon,  and  lastly 
Cardinal  Gibbons,  wearing  the  red  beretta,  the  insignia  of  his  office, 
and  the  purple  archiepiscopal  cape.  The  officiating  clergymen  wore 
black  robes  elaborately  embroidered  with  gold.  Softly  the  organ  played 
as  the  prelates  knelt  in  silent  adoration,  and  every  one  in  the  congre- 
gation, Catholic  and  Protestant,  Jew  and  Gentile,  bowed  the  head  in 
prayer. 

It  was  a  notable  gathering.  The  tall  wax  candles  on  the  altar  cast 
a  soft  light  on  the  upturned  features  of  the  highest  dignitary  of  the 
Catholic  Church  in  America.  Directly  in  front  was  the  President  of  the 
United  States  and  his  wife  and  Cabinet.  To  the  right  was  the  family 
of  the  dead  soldier.  To  the  left  were  the  pall-bearers  and  prominent 
military  men,  headed  by  General  Sherman  in  the  full  uniform  of  a  gen- 
eral of  the  United  States  Army.  On  the  other  side  were  the  Congres- 
sional committees  ;  behind  them  Senators,  Representatives,  and  the 
judges.  Here  were  gathered  together  every  branch  of  the  government 
and  the  highest  officers  of  the  government. 

The  cardinal  took  his  place  at  the  foot  of  the  coffin  and  read  the 
prayers  of  the  church  in  Latin  and  then  in  English.  The  whole 
assembly  listened  in  sympathy,  as  with  singularly  sweet,  sincere  voice 
the  priest  commended  to  God  the  soul  of  "Our  dear  brother  Philip 
Henry,"  praying  that  the  angels  would  guide  him  into  Paradise  and 
give  him  everlasting  rest.  The  President,  who  sat  almost  at  the  side 
of  the  cardinal,  bent  his  head  reverently  during  the  prayers,  and  the 
priests  who  had  formed  into  line  along  the  aisle  chanted  the  responses. 
And  then  by  one  of  those  odd  phenomena  in  nature  —  out  of  which 
faith  and  perhaps  fancy  might  draw  an  omen  of  consolation — at  this 
moment  the  hazy,  sultry  summer  air  suddenly  flushed  with  sunshine 
—  clear,  lucid  sunshine — for  there  came  through  an  oval  window  over 
the  altar  a  sudden  burst  of  light,  illuminating  the  chancel,  paling  the 
candle  gleams,  suffusing  the  scarlet  decorations  of  the  episcopal  throne 
with  a  deeper  hue ;  a  strange,  striking  effect,  causing  a  manifest 
movement  among  the  congregation,  for  it  seemed  as  if  the  consenting 
heavens  were  answering  in  very  truth,  the  prayer  of  the  church,  and 
sending  a  glow  of  light  and  hope  and  peace  over  the  proud  manes  of 
Sheridan. 


410  THE  LIFE  OF 

And  while  the  sweet,  entreating  voice  intoned  the  offices  of  the 
dead,  and  from  the  trained  company  ^of  priests  and  musicians  came 
the  answering  entreaty  that  God  would  be  with  the  dead  and  have 
mercy  forevermore,  through  the  windows  came  a  quick  sound  of 
command,  the  bugle  note,  the  tramp  of  armed  men  moving  into  col- 
umn, the  crash  of  the  muskets  as  they  came  heavily  to  the  ground.  It 
was  a  strange  unison  —  peace  and  war,  repose  and  action.  The  church 
and  the  state  seemed  to  blend  and  to  combine  to  do  honor  to  the  memory 
of  the  dead.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  mass  the  cardinal  descended 
from  his  red-covered  throne,  and  delivered  the  following  discourse  in  a 
calm,  impressive  manner : 

"And  Jonathan  and  Simon  took  Judas  their  brother,  and  buried  him 
in  the  sepulchre  of  their  fathers,  in  the  city  of  Modin.  And  all  the 
people  of  Israel  bewailed  him  with  great  lamentation  ;  and  they  mourned 
for  him  many  days,  and  said  :  How  is  the  mighty  fallen  that  saved 
the  people  of  Israel. — i  Mach.  ix.,  19-21. 

"  Well  might  the  children  of  Israel  bewail  their  great  captain  who 
led  them  so  often  to  battle  and  to  victory.  And  well  may  this  Nation 
grieve  for  the  loss  of  the  mighty  chieftain  whose  mortal  remains  now 
lie  before  us.  In  every  city  and  town  and  village  of  the  country,  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  his  name  is  uttered  with  sorrow,  and  his 
great  deeds  recorded  with  admiration. 

"There  is  one  consoling  feature  that  distinguishes  the  obsequies  ot 
our  illustrious  hero  from  those  of  the  great  Hebrew  leader.  He  was 
buried  in  the  midst  of  war,  amid  the  clashing  of  arms,  and  surrounded 
by  the  armed  hosts  of  the  enemy.  Our  captain,  thank  God,  is  buried 
amid  profound  peace,  while  we  are  enjoying  the  blessings  .of  domestic 
tranquility,  and  are  in  friendship  with  all  the  world. 

"The  death  of  General  Sheridan  will  be  lamented  not  only  by  the 
North,  but  also  by  the  South.  I  know  the  Southern  people  ;  I  know 
their  chivalry  ;  I  know  their  magnanimity,  their  warm  and  affectionate 
nature ;  and  I  am  sure  that  the  sons  of  the  South,  and  especially  those 
who  fought  in  the  late  war,  will  join  in  the  national  lamentation  and 
will  lay  a  garland  of  mourning  on  the  bier  of  the  great  general.  They 
recognize  the  fact  that  the  Nation's  general  is  dead,  and  that  his  death  is 
the  Nation's  loss. 

"  And  this  universal  sympathy,  coming  from  all  sections  of  the  coun- 
try, irrespective  of  party  lines,  is  easily  accounted  for  when  we  consider 
that  under  an  overruling  Providence  the  war  in  which  General  Sheri- 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  411 

dan  took  such  a  conspicuous  part  has  resulted  in  increased  blessings  to 
every  state  of  our  common  country. 

"  '  There's  a  divinity  that  shapes  our  ends, 
Rough-hew  them  how  we  will.' 

"  And  this  is  true  of  nations,  as  well  as  of  individuals. 

"  What  constitutes  the  great  difference  between  the  wars  of  antiquity 
and  our  recent  war?  The  war  of  the  olden  time  was  followed  by  sub- 
jugation and  bondage  : — in  the  train  of  our  great  struggle  came  recon- 
ciliation and  freedom.  Alexander  the  Great  waded  through  the  blood 
of  his  fellow-man.  By  the  sword  he  conquered,  and  by  the  sword  he 
kept  the  vanquished  in  bondage.  Scarcely  was  he  cold  in  death  when 
his  vassals  shook  off  the  yoke  and  his  empire  was  dismembered  into 
fragments. 

"  The  effect  of  the  late  war  has  been  to  weld  together  the  Nation  still 
more  closely  into  one  cohesive  body.  It  has  removed  once  for  all, 
slavery,  the  great  apple  of  discord  ;  it  has  broken  down  the  wall  of 
separation  which  divided  section  from  section,  and  exhibits  us  more 
strikingly  as  one  nation,  one  family,  with  the  same  aims  and  the  same 
aspirations.  The  humanity  exhibited  in  our  late  struggle  contrasted 
with  the  cruelties  exercised  toward  the  vanquished  of  former  times,  is 
an  eloquent  tribute  to  the  blessings  of  Christian  civilization. 

"  In  surveying  the  life  of  General  Sheridan  it  seems  to  me  that  these 
were  his  prominent  features  and  the  salient  points  in  his  character : 
undaunted  heroism,  combined  with  gentleness  of  disposition  ;  strong 
as  a  lion  in  war,  gentle  as  a  child  in  peace  ;  bold,  daring,  fearless, 
undaunted,  unhesitating,  his  courage  rising  with  the  danger  ;  ever  fer- 
tile in  resources,  ever  prompt  in  execution,  his  rapid  movements  never 
impelled  by  a  blind  impulse,  but  ever  prompted  by  a  calculating  mind. 

"  I  have  neither  the  time  nor  the  ability  to  dwell  upon  his  military 
career  from  the  time  he  left  West  Point  till  the  close  of  the  war.  Let 
me  select  one  incident  which  reveals  to  us  his  quickness  of  conception 
and  readiness  of  execution.  I  refer  to  his  famous  ride  in  the  Valley  of 
Virginia.  As  he  is  advancing  along  the  road  he  sees  his  routed  army 
rushing  pell-mell  toward  him.  Quick  as  thought  —  by  the  glance  of 
his  eye,  by  the  power  of  his  word,  by  the  strength  of  his  will  —  he 
hurls  back  that  living  stream  on  the  enemy  and  snatches  victory  from 
the  jaws  of  defeat.  How  bold  in  war,  how  gentle  in  peace.  On 
some  few  occasions  in  Washington  I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  Gen- 
eral Sheridan  socially  in  private  circles.  I  was  forcibly  struck  by  his 


412  THE  LIFE  OF 

gentle  disposition,  his  amiable  manner,  his  unassuming  deportment, 
his  eye  beaming  with  good  nature,  andJais  voice  scarcely  raised  above  a 
whisper.  I  said  to  myself,  '  Is  this  bashful  man  and  retiring  citizen 
the  great  General  of  the  American  Army  ?  Is  this  the  hero  of  so  many 
battles  ? ' 

"  It  is  true  General  Sheridan  has  been  charged  with  being  sometimes 
unnecessarily  severe  toward  the  enemy.  My  conversations  with  him 
strongly  impressed  me  with  the  groundlessness  of  a  charge  which  could 
in  nowise  be  reconciled  with  the  abhorrence  which  he  expressed  for  the 
atrocities  of  war,  with  his  natural  aversion  to  bloodshed,  and  with  the 
hope  he  uttered  that  he  would  never  again  be  obliged  to  draw  his  sword 
against  an  enemy.  I  am  persuaded  that  the  sentiments  of  humanity 
ever  found  a  congenial  home,  a  secure  lodgment,  in  the  breast  of  Gen- 
eral Sheridan.  Those  who  are  best  acquainted  with  his  military 
career  unite  in  saying  that  he  never  needlessly  sacrificed  human  life,  and 
that  he  loved  and  cared  for  his  soldiers  as  a  father  loves  and  cares  for  his 
children. 

"  But  we  must  not  forget  that  if  the  departed  hero  was  a  soldier,  he 
•was,  too,  a  citizen,  and  if  we  wish  to  know  how  a  man  stands  as  a  citi- 
zen we  must  ask  ourselves  how  he  stands  as  a  son,  a  husband,  and  a 
father.  The  parent  is  the  source  of  the  family  ;  the  family  is  the  source 
of  the  nation.  Social  life  is  the  reflex  of  the  family  life.  The  stream 
does  not  rise  above  its  source.  Those  who  were  admitted  into  the 
inner  circle  of  General  Sheridan's  home  need  not  to  be  told  that  it  was  a 
peaceful  and  happy  one.  He  was  a  fond  husband  and  an  affectionate 
father,  lovingly  devoted  to  his  wife  and  children.  I  hope  I  am  not  tres- 
passing upon  the  sacred  privacy  of  domestic  life  when  I  state  that  the 
general's  sickness  was  accelerated,  if  not  aggravated,  by  a  fatiguing 
journey  wrhich  he  made  in  order  to  be  home  in  time  to  assist  at  a 
domestic  celebration  in  which  one  of  his  children  was  the  central 
figure. 

' '  Above  all,  General  Sheridan  was  a  Christian.  He  died  fortified  by 
the  consolations  of  religion,  having  his  trust  in  the  saving  mercies  of 
our  Redeemer,  and  a  humble  hope  in  a  blessed  immortality. 

"  What  is  life  without  the  hope  of  immortality  ?  What  is  life  that  is 
bounded  by  the  horizon  of  the  tomb?  Sure,  it  is  not  worth  living. 
What  is  the  life  even  of  the  patriarchs  but  like  the  mist  which  is  dis- 
pelled by  the  morning  sun  ?  What  would  it  profit  this  illustrious  hero 
to  go  down  to  his  honored  grave  covered  with  earthly  glory,  if  he  had 
no  hope  in  the  eternal  glory  to  come  ?  It  is  the  hope  of  eternal  life  that 
constitutes  at  once  our  dignity  and  our  moral  responsibility. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  41 } 

u  God  has  planted  in  the  human  breast  an  irresistible  desire  for  im- 
mortality. It  is  born  with  us,  and  lives  and  moves  with  us.  It  inspires 
our  best  and  holiest  actions.  Now,  God  would  not  have  given  us  this 
desire  if  He  did  not  intend  that  it  should  be  fully  satisfied.  He  would 
not  have  given  us  this  thirst  for  infinite  happiness  if  He  had  not  intended 
to  assuage  it.  He  never  created  anything  in  vain. 

"  Thanks  to  God,  this  universal  yearning  of  the  human  heart  is  sanc- 
tioned and  vindicated  by  the  voice  of  revelation. 

"  The  inspired  Word  of  God  not  only  proclaims  the  immortality  of 
the  soul,  but  also  the  future  resurrection  of  the  body.  4  I  know,'  says 
the  prophet  Job,  '  that  my  Redeemer  liveth,  and  that  on  the  last  day  I 
shall  rise  out  of  the  earth  and  in  rtiy  flesh  I  shall  see  my  God.'  ;  Won- 
der not  at  this,'  says  our  Saviour,  l  for  the  hour  cometh  when  all  that 
are  in  their  graves  shall  hear  the  voice  of  the  Son  of  Man,  and  they 
who  have  done  well  shall  come  forth  to  the  resurrection  of  life,  and 
they  who  have  done  ill  to  the  resurrection  of  judgment.'  And  the  apostle 
writes  these  comforting  words  to  the  Thessalonians  :  'I  would  not 
have  you  ignorant,  brethren,  concerning  those  that  are  asleep,  that  ye 
be  not  sorrowful  like  those  who  have  no  hope  ;  for  if  we  believe  that 
Jesus  died  and  rose  again,  even  so  those  who  have  died  in  Jesus,  God 
will  raise  unto  himself.  Therefore  comfort  yourself  with  these  words.' 

"  These  are  the  words  of  comfort  I  would  address  to  you,  madam, 
faithful  consort  of  the  illustrious  dead.  This  is  the  olive  branch  of 
peace  and  hope  I  would  bring  you  to-day.  This  is  the  silver  lining  of 
the  cloud  which  hangs  over  you.  We  followed  you  in  spirit  and  with 
sympathizing  hearts  as  you  knelt  in  prayer  at  the  bedside  of  your  dying 
husband.  May  the  God  of  all  consolation  comfort  you  in  this  hour  of 
sorrow.  May  the  soul  of  your  husband  be  this  day  in  peace  and  his 
abode  in  Zion.  May  his  memory  be  ever  enshrined  in  the  hearts  of  his 
countrymen,  and  may  our  beloved  country,  which  he  has  loved  and 
served  so  well,  ever  be  among  the  foremost  nations  of  the  earth,  the 
favored  land  of  constitutional  freedom,  strong  in  the  loyalty  of  its  pa- 
triotic citizens  and  in  the  genius  and  valor  of  its  soldiers  till  time  shall 
be  no  more. 

u  Comrades  and  companions  of  the  illustrious  dead,  take  hence  your 
great  leader,  bear  him  to  his  last  resting-place,  carry  him  gently,  lov- 
ingly ;  and  though  you  may  not  hope  to  attain  his  exalted  rank  you  will 
strive  at  least  to  emulate  him  by  the  integrity  of  your  private  life,  by 
your  devotion  to  your  country,  and  by  upholding  the  honor  of  your 
military  profession." 


4'4 


THE  LIFE  OF 


The  offices  of  the  church  and  the  soft  mournful  words  of  the  rev- 
erend speaker  rose  and  swelled,  as  mingling,  the  martial  notes  of  prepara- 
tion fell  strangely,  but  not  harshly,  on  the  ear.  For  it  wras  fitting  that  the 
bugle  notes  should  be  heard  in  such  a  ceremony.  The  cardinal  slowly 
moved  back  to  the  chancel  and  passed  into  the  sacristy.  The  last  word 
had  been  spoken,  and  at  a  signal  a  body  of  grizzled,  brown  soldiers, 
sergeants  and  non-commissioned  officers,  marched  up  the  aisle  with 
firm  military  stride,  to  the  coffin.  The  pall-bearers  formed  in  line, 
Sherman  and  Carlisle  leading.  The  coffin  was  lifted  to  the  soldiers' 
shoulders,  and  as  it  moved  away  the  President  arose,  and  the  congre- 
gation with  him,  and  stood  with  bowed  heads  as  it  was  borne  to  the 
door. 

The  escort  had  assembled  while  the  funeral  services  were  in  prog- 
ress. It  formed  on  H  Street  facing  north,  with  the  foot  artillery  on 
the  right,  the  cavalry  on  the  left,  and  the  light  batteries  in  the  centre. 
Before  the  completion  of  the  services  the  caisson  and  the  general's 
horse  were  moved  to  a  point  nearer  the  church  entrance,  and  after  the 
casket  had  been  placed  on  the  caisson  the  column  was  formed  by 
wheeling  to  the  left,  and  moved  en  route  far  enough  to  permit  the  for- 
mation of  the  column  of  carriages  in  the  rear.  Just  before  the  close  of 
the  services  General  Schofield  and  his  aides  arranged  themselves  in  front 
of  the  troops  and  prepared  to  receive  the  funeral  party. 

While  the  services  were  in  progress  the  caisson  was  placed  in 
a  position  to  receive  the  casket,  and  the  general's  horse  was  led  to  a 
place  immediately  behind.  The  horse  is  a  dark  bay,  and  was  bought 
by  General  Sheridan  in  Chicago  about  four  years  ago.  It  was  bridled 
and  saddled  just  as  when  last  ridden  by  the  general.  The  general's  mil- 
itary boots  were  in  the  stirrups,  with  the  toes  pointing  backward. 
The  animal  was  led  by  a  tall  sergeant  in  full  uniform.  All  the  horses 
used  by  the  general  during  the  war  are  dead,  and  u  Guy,"  who  was 
used  on  this  occasion,  is  the  animal  which  had  been  the  longest  in 
the  general's  service  as  his  personal  saddle-horse. 

The  order  of  march  was  as  follows : 

A  BATTALION  OF  CAVALRY. 
Two  BATTERIES  LIGHT  ARTILLERY. 

MARINE  BAND. 

THIRD  ARTILLERY  BAND. 

BATTALION  OF  FOOT  ARTILLERY. 

CLERGY  IN  CARRIAGES. 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN.  41^ 

PALL-BEARERS  IN  CARRIAGES. 

BODY  BEARERS,  ARTILLERY  SERGEANTS. 

CAISSON  BEARING  REMAINS. 

THE  GENERAL'S  HORSE. 
MRS.  SHERIDAN  AND  FAMILY. 

MILITARY  STAFF. 

THE  PRESIDENT  AND  MRS.  CLEVELAND. 

THE  CABINET. 

THE  JUDGES. 

THE  CONGRESSIONAL  COMMITTEES. 

DIPLOMATIC  CORPS. 

REPRESENTATIVES  OF  THE  LOYAL  LEGION  AND 
GRAND  ARMY  OF  THE  REPUBLIC. 

As  the  body  was  borne  from  the  church  the  bell  tolled.  Soldiers 
stood  at  present  arms,  and  all  the  citizens  removed  their  hats.  The 
best  of  order  was  preserved,  and  the  crowd  seemed  inspired  by  the 
solemnity  of  the  occasion.  When  all  had  been  arranged,  the  column 
moved  slowly  in  the  direction  of  the  cemetery. 

It  was  a  long  journey,  and  as  the  Marine  Band  playing  "  Nearer, 
My  God,  to  Thee,"  marched  away,  the  noonday  sun  came  blazing 
down.  At  half-past  n  o'clock  the  procession  started,  and  it  was 
i  o'clock  exactly  when  the  head  of  the  column  came  to  the  Arlington 
Cemetery.  The  route  was  along  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  around  the 
old-fashioned  Washington  statue,  through  old-fashioned,  mediaeval 
Georgetown,  over  the  aqueduct  bridge,  and  by  red  gravelly,  wind- 
ing roads,  past  Fort  Myer  to  Arlington.  General  Schofield  rode 
part  of  the  way  in  his  carriage,  but  mounted  again  at  the  cemetery 
gates.  The  cortege  attracted  respectful,  curious  attention,  but  much 
of  the  route  was  through  country  roads,  and  when  the  column  reached 
the  cemetery  the  men  were  marching  in  quick  time  and  looked  tired. 
Some  of  the  officers  were  so  weary  that  they  threw  themselves  on  the 
ground  under  the  trees. 

The  artillery  was  massed  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  the  guns  ready  to 
fire.  The  infantry  drew  up  in  line,  extending  down  the  slope.  The 
grave  had  been  covered  with  rude  scantling,  which  was  torn  away  as 
the  procession  advanced.  The  police  and  the  soldiers  formed  a  square, 
and  around  the  edges  of  the  square  was  a  crowd  of  two  or  three  thou- 
sand adventurous  men,  women,  and  children,  who  had  tramped  all  the 
way  over  the  red,  dusty  roads  to  do  honor  in  their  humble  way  to  Sher- 


416  THE  LIFE  OF 

idan.  The  caisson  bearing  his  coffin  was  slowly  drawn  up  to  the 
front  of  Lee's  ancient  Arlington  House.  Pall-bearers  and  friends  ad- 
vanced, Sherman,  Colonel  Grant,  and  Governor  Alger  standing  at  the 
side  of  the  grave.  A  few  paces  back  was  the  President.  Near  were 
George  W.  Childs,  Hawley,  and  the  group  of  staff  officers,  Forsythr 
and  standing  nearer  the  bier,  Crook  in  full  uniform,  with  the  face  and 
bearing  of  one  of  Louis  XIV. 's  marshals,  and  at  the  head  of  the  grave 
the  general's  family.  The  priest,  Father  Foley,  with  a  large  com- 
pany of  responding  priests,  recited  the  offices  of  the  church,  chanting 
the  "  De  Profundis." 

Tenderly  the  coffin  was  laid  in  its  place.  The  flag  was  lovingly 
removed.  The  glorious  sword  of  the  dead  hero,  which  seemed  rusted 
and  worn  with  service,  was  reverently  taken  from  the  coffin  by  an  aide. 
A  bugler,  one  who  had  served  under  Sheridan,  came  to  the  grave  and 
played  the  old  bugle  notes  of"  taps."  It  was  the  u  good-night"  he  had 
heard  as  a  boy  at  the  military  school,  as  an  officer  during  his  whole 
army  life —  meaning  that  the  day  was  ended  and  the  work  was  done. 
As  at  the  grave  of  Grant,  so  at  the  grave  of  Sheridan,  was  the  same 
felicitous  thought  —  that  the  ceremony  should  end  with  the  old  bugle 
notes.  The  day  was  ended  and  the  work  was  done,  and  all  present 
felt,  as  the  music  died  away  and  they  looked  into  the  new-made  grave 
of  this  captain,  whose  name  will  live  in  far  distant  ages,  that  his  life 
was  cast  among  the  days  of  noble  deeds,  and  that  his  great  work  was 
well  done. 

The  bugler  was  a  man  of  magnificent  proportions,  with  a  face 
tanned  and  bronzed  by  much  exposure.  He  stood  like  a  statue,  his  left 
hand  resting  on  his  sabre,  his  right  hanging  at  full  length  and  holding 
his  bugle.  Had  he  been  carved  out  of  marble  he  could  not  have  been 
more  motionless.  He  stood  alone,  as  all  had  fallen  back  to  be  out  of 
the  range  of  the  rifles.  While  Bugler  Charles  Kimball,  who  had  served 
with  Sheridan,  stood  at  his  old  comrade's  open  grave,  the  infantry  had 
loaded  their  pieces.  "  Fire,"  rang  out  from  the  officers,  and  the  sharp 
crack  of  the  rifles  awoke  the  echoes.  Twice  more  this  was  repeated ^ 
and  then  the  last  ceremony  but  one  had  been  performed. 

The  soldier  slept.  The  grand  rounds  had  been  made.  The  camp 
was  hushed  in  slumber.  The  signal  of"  taps  "  or  "lights  out"  must  be 
given  by  the  bugler.  When  the  last  echo  had  died  away,  Bugler  Kimball 
raised  the  instrument  to  his  lips  and  sounded  the  call  that  every  old 
soldier  knows  so  well.  The  notes  rolled  out  and  were  caught  up  by 
the  trees  and  the  air  and  carried  away  until  they  gradually  faded  from 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  417 

mortal  ear.  It  was  peculiarly  a  solemn  moment.  The  weird  tones  of 
the  bugle  fell  like  the  wail  of  a  spirit,  and  the  significance  of  its 
trumpet  tones  was  understood  by  every  one. 

It  was  the  soldiers'  last  farewell  to  Philip  H.  Sheridan. 

The  final  rite  had  been  performed,  and  every  one  turned  away  except 
General  Sherman.  He  stood  on  one  side  and  looked  into  the  open 
grave  and  quietly  wiped  his  eyes.  Brave  man  as  he  was,  he  was  not 
ashamed  to  drop  a  tear  in  memory  of  his  comrade  and  companion  in 
arms. 

Historic  and  lovely  Arlington  !  No  more  appropriate  place  could 
be  found  in  the  land  for  a  soldier's  grave.  There  are  nearly  sixteen 
thousand  of  our  heroes  lying  there.  The  bodies  of  Logan,  Stanley,  and 
Paul  rested  therein  before  Sheridan's  came  to  still  further  sanctify  it. 
And  in  all  that  patriotic  two  hundred  acres,  could  a  more  befitting 
spot  be  found  for  General  Sheridan's  grave  than  the  one  in  which  his 
body  is  laid?  Chaplain  Van  Home,  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland, 
tells  a  story  of  the  much-loved  General  George  H.  Thomas,  which  is 
appropriate  here.  When  the  National  Cemetery  at  Chattanooga  was 
being  laid  out  under  the  chaplain's  direction,  he  asked  the  general 
how  he  should  arrange  the  graves  —  whether  by  the  states  to  whose 
regiments  the  dead  belonged,  or  designate  them  by  their  army  organ- 
ization. 

"Bury  them  as  they  fell  fighting  for  the  Union.  They  aided  to 
preserve  it,"  replied  the  wise-brained  and  sound-hearted  Virginian 
soldier.  And  Sheridan  lies,  as  it  were,  at  the  head  of  the  columns. 

His  grave  is  on  the  open  plateau,  a  little  to  the  right  of  Arlington 
House,  upon  the  highest  swell  in  the  inclosure,  and  just  where  behind 
him,  as  it  were,  are  the  serried  grave  ranks  of  those  who  fought  to 
maintain  the  Union  and  make  all  its  people  free.  Not  one  hundred 
paces  from  the  door  of  the  stately,  old-fashioned  house,  once  occupied 
by  Robert  E.  Lee  as  his  home,  the  new-made  grave  of  the  hero  who 
harried  and  fought  him  to  final  defeat,  swells  to  the  sunlight. 

Here  on  the  brow  of  the  hill,  where  you  have  one  of  the  most  beau- 
tiful views  imaginable,  even  in  picturesque  Virginia,  Sheridan  finds 
rest.  As  you  stand  at  the  grave,  Washington  lies  unrolled  as  a  pano- 
rama :  the  white  winged  Capitol,  the  Washington  Monument,  the 
national  buildings,  all  form  a  back-ground  to  a  scene  of  surpassing  beauty. 
There  is  no  place  of  public  vantage  in  Washington,  which  may  not  be 
clearly  seen  from  the  grave  and  the  future  monument  of  the  illustrious 
general.  The  wisdom  of  the  Federal  government  in  selecting  this 

27 


THE  NATIONAL  MILITARY  CEMETERY,  ARLINGTON. 


SHOWING  THE  GRAVES  OF  MANY  OF  THE  UNION  DEAD.   SCENE  IN  THE  SOUTHWESTERN  SECTION 

OF  THE  GROUNDS. 


THE  ARLINGTON  HOUSE  AND  CEMETERY. 


THE  BURIAL  PLACE  OF  GENERAL  SHERIDAN. 


THE  GRAVE  IS  LOCATED  ABOUT  WHERE  THE  SHADOW  OF  THE  FOLIAGE  IS  SHOWN,  IN  THE  LOWER  RIGHT-HAND  CORNER 

OF  THE  ENGRAVING. 


420  THE  LIFE  OF 

site  for  the  great  war  cemetery  can  be  best  apprehended  when  standing 
where  Sheridan  lies.  Here  amid  the*  graves  of  so  many  thousands  of 
our  soldiers  one  can  see  the  capital  of  the  Nation  —  the  symbol  of  that 
unity  which  they  gave  their  lives  to  preserve.  It  seems  fitting  that  the 
spirit  of  Sheridan  should  be  here,  forever,  as  it  were,  keeping  watch 
and  ward  over  the  capital  he  fought  so  ably  and  victoriously  to  defend 
and  save. 

The  National  Military  Cemetery  lies  on  the  south  bank  of  the 
Potomac,  one  mile  south  of  the  aqueduct  bridge.  The  estate,  of  which 
these  sacred  acres  once  formed  a  part,  belonged  to  the  Custis  family,  of 
which  Martha  Washington  was  a  member.  It  passed  into  possession 
of  the  Lees  through  the  general's  marriage  with  the  only  child  of 
George  Washington  Parke  Custis.  It  is  a  fit  and  striking  place,  in 
association  and  aspect,  for  its  use.  Here  under  the  shade  of  noble  oaks 
lie  the  remains  of  16,264  Union  soldiers  —  white  and  colored.  The 
larger  portion  of  the  burials  are  made  in  the  southwest  portion,  which 
is  very  nearly  a  level  plateau  covered  with  groves  of  wide-spreading, 
ancient  trees.  The  graves  are  arranged  in  long,  parallel  rows,  giving 
something  of  the  appearance  of  marching  columns.  There  are  11,915 
graves  of  soldiers  whose  names,  companies,  regiments,  and  commands 
are  known.  On  the  plateau  upon  which  the  manor  house  stands,  is 
a  stately  sarcophagus  covering  the  remains  of  2,211  unknown  Union 
soldiers,  whose  remains  were  gathered  from  many  fields.  There  are 
4,349  graves  the  occupants  of  which  are  unknown,  and  the  head-boards 
suitably  indicate  the  melancholy  fact.  And  here,  it  is  plain  that 

"  The  muffled  drum's  sad  roll  has  beat 

The  soldier's  last  tattoo ; 
No  more  on  life's  parade  shall  meet 
That  brave  and  fallen  few. 

"  Your  own  proud  land's  heroic  soil 

Must  be  your  fitter  grave  ; 
She  claims  from  war  his  richest  spoil, 
The  ashes  of  the  brave." 

Arlington  is  indeed  a  beautiful  spot.  Its  broad,  gravel  walks  and 
smooth  green  lawns  are  kept  in  such  perfect  order  all  the  time,  as  is 
only  possible  in  a  place  under  military  control.  The  flower-beds  are 
masses  of  color  in  their  seasons,  and  the  whole  aspect  of  the  place  is 
one  of  quiet  and  rest.  The  large  oaks  afford  shelter  to  many  a  squirrel, 
and  these  pretty  little  animals  spring  about  from  headstone  to  headstone, 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  421 

and  by  their  liveliness  accentuate  the  contrast  with  death,  of  which  the 
turf  mounds  are  ever-present  reminders.  The  old  house  in  which 
generations  of  the  Lees  first  saw  the  light  and  learned  to  know  the  mean- 
ing of  the  word  home,  stands  on  the  highest  part  of  the  estate.  It  is  in 
the  stately  Greek  style  so  much  affected  by  our  revolutionary  sires  and 
their  sons.  The  house  is  spacious,  and  the  great  portico  with  its  high 
white  pillars  gives  it  a  large  appearance,  and  commands  the  landscape 
in  conspicuous  fashion. 

Sheridan  rests  among  his  comrades.  He  rests  in  scantified  earth, 
made  holy  alike  by  its  rescue  from  the  degradation  of  slavery  and  the 
entombment  therein  of  those  who  died  that  the  Republic  might  live. 
What  worthier  grave  could  be  found  for  heroic  dust  ?  What  loftier 
memories  could  be  evoked  than  those  which  must  arise,  even  to  the 
dullest  of  the  many  who  will  stand  there,  gazing  upon  the  grave  of 
Sheridan,  and  then  raising  their  eyes  to  take  in  the  wonderful  land- 
scape, made  glorious  with  its  vast  array  of  memories — sad  and  som- 
bre, grave  and  great,  as  they  may  be,  yet  filled  forever  with  cheer  to 
those  who  strive  for  the  betterment  of  mankind  ?  Our  soldier,  whose 
stainless  sword  was  never  drawn  unworthily,  lies  where  his  name  must 
be,  as  long  as  the  Nation  lives,  a  reminder  of  the  nobility  of  service, 
the  exaltation  of  patriotism,  the  unquenchable  dignity  and  fame  of 
those  who  nobly  labored  for  both.  The  historic  Potomac  rolls  its 
waters  where  the  mounds  of 'our  heroes  swell  to  the  sunlight.  Some 
miles  below  stands  a  mausoleum,  bearing  within  its  walls  the  ashes  of 
Washington.  All  vessels,  of  whatever  nationality,  pay  homage  to  the 
great  dead  by  the  solemn  toll  of  their  bells  as  they  sail  by.  May  it  not 
yet  seem  fitting,  as  the  sacred  shades  of  Arlington  are  passed,  that  the 
dipping  of  the  colors  at  least  will  be  made  the  evidences  of  honor  to 
the  manes  of  Sheridan,  Logan,  Stanley,  Paul,  and  the  great,  silent 
army  of  their  comrades  who  lie  there  in  their  sentineled  mounds? 

"  Rest  on,  embalmed  and  sainted  dead,  dear  is  the  blood  you  gave; 
No  impious  footsteps  here  shall  tread  the  herbage  of  your  grave ; 
Nor  shall  your  glory  be  forgot,  while  fame  her  record  keeps, 
Or  honor  points  the  hallowed  spot  where  valor  proudly  sleeps. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 


GENERAL  SHERIDAN'S  LIFE  AND 
CAREER-A  REVIEW. 

SHERIDAN'S     SERVICES  —  OPINIONS    OF    CONTEMPORARIES  —  CHARACTER    AND 
POSITION  AS  A  SOLDIER — AS  A  CITIZEN  AND  MAN  —  A  WONDERFUL  STORY 

OF  GREAT  DEEDS  —  A  ROMANCE  OF  WAR — AN  HONORABLE  AND  UPRIGHT 
PERSONALITY  —  HIS  GRAPHIC  POWERS  AS  A  WRITER  —  BADEAU's  TESTI- 
MONY—  BRIEF  SPEECHES  AT  ARMY  REUNIONS. 

IN  closing  this  volume,  it  will  not  be  out  of  place  to  briefly  review 
the  career  of  the  great  soldier  and  honored  citizen,  as  well  as  to  give 
some  of  the  contemporaneous  opinions  of  his  character,  which,  follow- 
ing his  death,  have  been  given  to  the  world. 

To  write  of  his  career  is  to  speak  of  national  forces.  To  discuss  it 
personally  involves  the  growth  of  a  great  people.  Could  such  a  career 
have  occurred  anywhere  else  than  in  this  democratic  country  ?  The 
child  of  Irish  immigrant  parents,  born  in  1831*  in  Ohio,  his  father  a 
railroad  laborer  or  sub-contractor,  his  brothers  printers  and  country 
storekeepers,  he  is  enabled  to  become  a  cadet  at  the  National  Military 
Academy.  Again  it  may  be  said,  what  a  career !  At  seventeen  a 
cadet ;  at  twenty-two  a  brevet  second  lieutenant ;  two  years  later  re- 
ceiving his  grade  ;  at  thirty  commissioned  a  captain  in  the  Thirteenth 
Infantry,  United  States  Army ;  fourteen  months  later  a  colonel  of 
volunteer  cavalry  ;  thirty-seven  days  passed,  of  which  thirty-four  were 
under  fire,  and  he  fought  and  won  a  battle  with  i  ,200  men  against  J,ooo, 
—  a  battle  which  makes  him  a  brigadier  at  thirty-two  ;  four  months  later 
a  division  commander  and  tenaciously  holding  in  a  great  battle  the  key 

*  Colonel  Burr  was  informed  when  in  Somerset,  Ohio,  and  by  the  venerable  mother  of  the  general 
that  her  son  Philip  was  born  at  Albany,  New  York,  March  6,  1831.  There  was  a  difference  of  opin- 
ion in  the  town  as  to  this,  and  it  is  known  also  that  Mrs.  Sheridan  has  given  at  other  times  Somer- 
set as  the  birthplace  of  her  famous  son.  But  it  was  decided  to  let  the  last  statement  stand.  These 
inquiries  were  made  for  this  volume,  and  before  it  was  known  to  the  publishers  that  the  general 
was  preparing  his  memoirs.  Since  then  General  Sheridan  himself  settled  the  question  by  correct- 
ing, shortly  before  his  death,  the  proofs  of  a  biographical  article  to  be  published  in  Appleton's 
Cyclopaedia.  Albany  was  named  by  him  as  his  birthplace.  R.  J.  H. 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  423 

of  the  Union  position;  three  months  later  still,  leading  and  fighting  in 
one  of  the  greatest  battles  of  the  Civil  War  —  that  of  Stone  River,  for 
his  service  and  ability  in  which  he  was  made,  and  before  he  quite 
reached  his  thirty-third  birthday,  a  major-general  of  volunteers.  In 
the  next  twelve  months  he  was  a  foremost  participant  in  a  vast  forward 
movement,  that  of  the  Tullahoma  campaign,  ending  in  the  occupation  of 
Chattanooga,  followed  by  the  terrible  battle  of  Chickamauga  ;  and  still 
later  winning  the  plaudits  of  commanders,  soldiery,  and  nation  by  his 
masterly  capture  of  Orchard  Knob  and  the  audacious  and  victorious 
assault  on  Mission  Ridge,  in  the  three-days  fighting  and  victory  known 
to  Union  annals  as  the  battle  of  Chattanooga.  A  winter  of  hard  work 
and  some  fighting,  and  then  ordered  East  to  the  command  of  the  finest 
cavalry  army  that  has  been  organized,  equipped,  and  handled  in  mod- 
ern days.  And  what  a  record  of  service  !  The  constant  fights  and  as 
constant  victories  are  to  be  reckoned  by  the  hundred.  Around  Rich- 
mond, between  May  and  August,  1864,  Sheridan's  troopers  were  ubi- 
quitous. They  were  a  flame  of  destruction  ;  a  tornado  of  defeat  to  the 
rebels  ;  a  very  cyclone  of  victory  to  the  Union  cause.  In  eleven  months 
seventy-six  battles  were  fought  and  won  by  that  cavalry,  and  Sheridan 
personally  participated  in  sixty-two  of  them. 

Then  came  that  campaign  of  massive  fighting  and  magnificent  tri- 
umphs, which  swept  the  Shenandoah  Valley  within  three  months  clear 
of  the  enemy  that  had  held  it  almost  unbrokenly  for  three  years  —  a  cam- 
paign of  five  great  battles,  fought  with  all  arms,  and  won,  too,  against  a 
foe  always  having  a  decided  advantage  in  chosen  positions.  It  was  a 
campaign  of  constant  struggle,  skirmish,  sortie,  infantry  charges,  and 
fiercest  cavalry  encounters.  One,  too,  that  was  so  dramatic  in  charac- 
ter, so  heroic  in  mould,  that  its  commander's  name  has  passed  into  the 
world's  history  —  become  renowned  in  poesy  and  painting,  and  ac- 
cepted finally  as  that  of  one  of  the  greatest  soldiers  of  the  century. 
Sheridan  was  not  more  than  half  way  over  his  thirty-third  year,  when 
he  received  the  thanks  of  Congress  and  was  made  a  major-general  in 
our  regular  army.  It  is  a  record  of  honors  won  grandly,  only  equaled, 
as  to  the  age  of  him  who  received  them,  by  that  other  great  soldier, 
to  whom  Sherida..  has  sometimes  been  not  inaptly  compared  —  Napo- 
leon Bonaparte.  Our  soldier  was  at  the  very  front  of  his  career  when, 
within  a  month  ::fter  his  thirty-fourth  birthday,  he  planned,  fought, 
and  won  the  splendid  tactical  campaign,  fierce  battle,  and  complete 
victory  of  Five  Forks.  That  wonderful  ' '  barn  door  "  of  devoted  human 
lives  he  so  skillfully  swung  with  such  terrible  and  unerring  precision 


424  THE  LIFE  OF 

against  Lee's  army  on  that  April  day  of  1865,  has  made  Sheridan 
renowned  as  the  most  famous  tactiqrarf  of  the  Union  Army.  Then 
came  that  unerring  and  relentless  pursuit,  in  whose  grip  the  slave-hold- 
ers' rebellion  was  at  last  strangled  to  death  on  Saylor's  Creek  and  at 
Appomattox. 

Sheridan  was  a  captain  on  the  I4th  of  March,  1861.  On  the  4th 
of  April,  1865,  he  was  the  youngest  of  our  renowned  soldiers,  and  in 
fame  surpassed  only  by  two  others  —  Grant  and  Sherman  ;  in  rank 
only  by  Grant. 

As  Grant  so  often  said,  "  Sheridan  never  failed."  That  is  why  the 
general  sent  him  to  the  Rio  Grande,  with  the  expectation  of  having 
to  lead  the  way  into  Mexico  in  order  to  destroy  the  usurping  defiance 
of  the  Monroe  doctrine,  insolently  executed  while  we  were  struggling 
in  the  throes  of  civil  war,  created  by  a  similar  and  sinister  sympathy  of 
despotism. 

Then  his  career  since  the  clash  of  arms,  was  one  both  notable 
and  characteristic.  The  administration  of  the  turbulent  Fifth  Mili- 
tary (reconstruction)  District,  is  now  acknowledged  by  friend  and  foe 
to  have  been  remarkably  able,  and  now  his  bitterest  antagonists  rec- 
ognize that  he  sought  within  his  orders  only  the  maintenance  of  peace 
and  civil  liberty.  The  splendid  policy  by  which,  during  Grant's  terms 
as  President,  the  entire  Central  and  trans-Missouri  West  was  cleared 
of  its  Indian  difficulty,  so  that  the  vast  material  development  thereof 
made  by  railroad,  mine,  ranch,  and  prairie  farm,  could  go  forward  un- 
molested, owes  very  much  of  its  success  to  the  military  skill  and  ad- 
ministrative sagacity  with  which  Sheridan  conducted  all  the  field  oper- 
ations, as  well  as  the  tribal  negotiations.  Made  a  lieutenant-general 
as  the  first  act  of  Grant's  presidential  term,  his  commission  being,  like 
Sherman's,  dated  March  4,  1869,  Sheridan  received  the  news  of  his 
promotion  to  the  grade  of  lieutenant-general  while  returning  from  an 
Indian  campaign  in  Kansas.  And  then  came  his  last  promotion — 
that  of  general.  Given  by  a  grateful  country  while  its  valiant  and 
worthy  soldier  lay  in  the  darkest  recesses  of  the  Valley  of  Death,  it 
was  indeed  a  tribute  worthy  of  a  nation  and  of  the  services  of  the  pub- 
lic servant  by  whom  it  was  then  received. 

The  estimation  in  which  Sheridan  was  held  while  living,  and  now 
that  he  is  dead,  by  those  competent  to  pass  judgment  on  him  as  a 
soldier  and  man,  is  such  as  to  accord  to  him  a  lofty  place  among  his 
contemporaries.  Interviews  had  with  famous  German  soldiers  illus- 
trate this : 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  425 

Count  von  Moltke  is  reported  as  saying  :  "  General  Sheridan  struck 
me  as  the  type  of  a  thoroughly  American  general,  with  all  the  wonderful 
energy  and  fertility  of  resource  that  characterize  the  Nation,  and  prob- 
ably no  better  cavalry  commander  has  ever  taken  the  field.  All  the 
armies  of  Europe  have  adopted  many  of  the  lessons  taught  by  him  in 
the  tactical  use  of  cavalry." 

General  von  der  Goltz  :  "I  consider  General  Sheridan  one  of  the 
ablest  cavalry  commanders  in  the  world." 

General  von  Pape,  who  commands  the  entire  Prussian  corps  of 
guards  says  that  Sheridan's^campaign  in  Western  Virginia  is  a  model  of 
the  way  to  handle  large  masses  of  cavalry  in  the  warfare  of  the  future. 

Prince  Frederick  of  Hohenzollern  says  :  "  The  late  emperor  often 
spoke  of  him  as  the  man  who  knew  best  how  to  make  cavalry  horses  do 
more  work  than  any  other  commander  ever  got  out  of  them." 

General  Boulanger,  the  French  soldier  of  whom  Von  Moltke  is 
said  to  have  allowed  that  there  is  something  in  him,  pays,  as  reported, 
this  tribute  to  Sheridan  :  "  The  judgment  I  personally  formed  of  him 
was  that  he  was  a  most  intellectual  man  and  a  most  competent  soldier." 

The  London  editorial  writers,  among  other  foreign  critics,  have  not 
been  chary  of  discriminating  praise  of  the  dead  soldier.  The  writers 
are  stijl  biased  by  their  overstrained  admiration  of  the  Confederate 
commanders,  but  some  of  their  expressions  in  regard  to  Sheridan  will 
.bear  preservation : 

"  General  Sheridan,"  said  the  Times,  "  had  an  eagle  eye  for  pierc- 
ing through  the  designs  of  the  enemy  and  for  detecting  at  a  glance  all 
their  weak  points." 

"  Sheridan,"  remarked  the  Morning  Post,  "was  a  man  whom  his 
enemies  admired  even  while  his  genius  was  overcoming  their  stubborn 
courage." 

The  Daily  News,  the  day  after  the  intelligence  of  Sheridan's  death 
was  received,  wrote  of  him  that  he  was  "  not  only  the  most  brilliant 
cavalry  officer,"  of  our  Civil  War,  but  he  was  also  "both  a  tactician 
and  a  strategist,  capable  of  the  most  extensive  combinations,  and  able 
to  carry  out  far-reaching  plans,  and  he  had  the  nerve,  resource,  and 
decision  for  emergencies  that  were  wanting  to  some  of  the  greatest 
strategists,  notably  the  Archduke  Charles." 

The  same  writer  tells  that  "  his  warmth  of  nature  and  the  peculiar 
character  of  his  genius  made  him  loved.  He  was  one  of  the  most  sol- 
dierly soldiers  of  his  time.  He  united  brilliant  courage,  which  he  owed 
to  his  Irish  origin,  to  perfect  steadiness  and  presence  of  mind  in  emer- 


426  THE  LIFE  OF 

gencies."  There  is  internal  evidence  in  the  News  article  which  points 
to  Justin  McCarthy  as  the  writer  thereqf. 

General  Sherman  has  often  and  again  given  his  opinion  of  his  dead 
comrade.  In  the  grief  that  filled  him  when  his  death  was  announced, 
the  old  soldier  would  only  allow  himself  to  say,  in  reply  to  a  question 
put  by  a  New  York  reporter:  "  My  estimate  of  Sheridan?  I  have 
frequently  given  my  estimate  of  General  Sheridan  —  and  the  world 
knows  what  it  is  —  what  I  thought  of  his  great  abilities  as  a  soldier 
and  of  his  character  as  a  man.  Sheridan's  place  in  history  has  long 
been  established.  His  deeds  and  achievements,  with  those  of  Grant, 
Logan,  and  other  great  commanders  of  the  Civil  War,  are  familiar 
household  words  throughout  the  land.  But  I  have  nothing  to  say  now." 

No  tribute  paid  to  him  professionally  and  officially,  as  well  from 
man  to  man,  shows  more  discriminating  insight  than  the  words  of  Mr. 
Endicott,  Secretary  of  War,  who  declared  that : 

"  General  Sheridan's  death  is  a  great  loss  to  the  army  and  to  this 
department.  I  mean  as  a  practical,  energetic  man  of  affairs.  He  had 
a  wide  experience,  gathered  during  an  active  military  life.  He  knew 
and  understood  all  the  conditions  of  army  life  in  all  parts  of  the  country, 
and  of  the  people  with  whom  our  soldiers  have  to  deal,  including  the 
Indians,  in  whom  he  took  peculiar  interest.  He  was  wise  and  sagacious, 
and  his  judgment  was  marked  by  readiness  in  decision  and  guided  by 
shrewd  common  sense.  He  had  so  long  held  high  command,  and  had 
been  attended  by  such  success,  that  he  felt  a  confidence  in  his  adminis- 
tration of  affairs  which  was  rarely  at  fault.  I  always  found  him  most 
reasonable  and  ready  to  look  at  all  sides  of  a  question,  and,  for  a  man 
of  such  impulses,  most  open  to  conviction.  As  a  soldier,  he,  of  course, 
stands  quite  by  himself,  differing  with  a  marked  and  intense  individ- 
uality from  all  our  distinguished  soldiers.  As  a  cavalry  officer  he  was 
preeminent.  The  rapidity  of  his  movements,  the  energy  with  which 
he  inspired  officers  and  men,  his  unerring  instincts  on  the  battle-field, 
led  necessarily  to  great  success,7  that  was  well  deserved.  He  was  very 
interesting  and  entertaining  in  social  intercourse ;  he  had  a  fund  of 
anecdote,  a  variety  of  information  that  often  was  very  instructive.  His 
experiences  in  Europe,  when  he  accompanied  the  German  Army  to 
France  in  1870,  were  varied  and  very  interesting." 

Major-General  Daniel  E.  Sickles  said  of  Sheridan:  "He  was  a 
great  soldier.  Sheridan's  character  impressed  itself  readily  upon  his 
command.  He  gave  to  his  men  an  intrepidity,  a  confidence,  an  audacity 
like  his  own,  which  enabled  him  to  get  a  great  deal  more  work  out  of 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  427 

ten  thousand  men  than   another  commander  would  get  from  twenty 
thousand.     His  presence  with  a  command  fairly  doubled  its  strength." 

Senator  Hawley,  of  Connecticut,  himself  a  capable  soldier,  has  said, 
among  other  tributes,  that  ct  Sheridan's  judgment  was  as  sound  as  if 
he  had  been  the  calmest  of  men.  In  private  life  he  was  one  of  the 
sweetest,  tenderest,  kindest  of  men." 

Senator  Frye,  of  Maine,  declares  that  "  he  was  one  of  the  most  admir- 
able officers  I  ever  knew.  I  was  with  him  in  New  Orleans  during 
those  troublesome  days  when  he  was  in  command.  Before  that  I  had 
supposed  that  he  was  a  somewhat  rollicking  and  adventurous  Irish 
leader.  My  experience  with  him  there  satisfied  me  that  he  was  a  man 
of  wonderfully  sound  and  cool  judgment." 

The  New  York  Sun,  in  a  very  lucid  and  comprehensive  review  of 
Sheridan's  career,  which  bears  the  distinct  marks  of  Editor  Charles  A. 
Dana's  supervision,  at  least,  closes  with  these  words  :  "  It  must  be  said 
in  conclusion  that  he  was  one  of  the  ablest  and  most  impartial  admin- 
istrators the  American  Army  ever  had.  In  recognition  of  this,  no  less 
than  of  his  conspicuous  services  in  the  field,  Congress  and  the  Presi- 
dent reflected  infinite  credit  upon  themselves  when  they  bestowed  upon 
him,  before  his  eyes  were  closed  in  death,  the  exalted  rank  of  general, 
as  had  already  been  done  in  turn  to  his  illustrious  predecessors,  Grant 
and  Sherman.  He  has  deserved  well  of  the  Republic.  May  his  soul 
rest  in  peace  ! " 

Major-General  James  M.  Schofield,  who  was  a  classmate  of  Sheri- 
dan's, and  succeeds  him  in  command  of  the  United  States  Army,  is 
reported  as  saying,  among  many  other  tributes  to  his  dead  comrade,  that 
"  To  me  Sheridan  was  always  the  beau  ideal  of  a  true  soldier  and  a 
really  great  commander.  He  is  one  of  the  few  American  officers  who 
attained  high  and  responsible  rank  through  his  natural  force  of  charac- 
ter and  his  military  genius.  He  was  a  marked  man,  even  at  West 
Point,  for  he  displayed  at  that  early  stage  of  his  military  life  the  same 
sterling  qualities  which  subsequently  made  him  a  prominent  character 
in  our  national  history.  .  .  .  Every  officer  I  have  ever  met, 
whatever  rank  they  might  have  held,  who  served  under  Sheridan  in 
the  West  or  the  East,  have  shown  by  their  language  that  they  honored 
and  loved  him.  That  is  something  you  cannot  say  of  every  man  who 
wore  the  shoulder  straps  of  a  general." 

General  Daniel  Butterfield,  who  first  met  Sheridan  at  Chattanooga, 
says :  "  He  was  a  great  soldier,  a  fighting  soldier.  As  a  leader  he  has 
never  had  a  superior,  in  my  judgment,  in  any  army,  at  any  time." 


428  THE  LIFE  OF 

Senator  Jones,  of  Arkansas,  said  :  "  I  regarded  General  Sheridan  as 
a  great  soldier."  Senator  Cockerel  l,k"of "Missouri,  considers  that  u  he 
was  one  of  the  greatest  cavalry  officers,  I  think,  in  either  army  during 
the  war.  He  was,  as  a  man,  genial  and  pleasant,  and  very  popular 
with  those  who  knew  him."  Senator  Morgan,  of  Alabama,  declared 
that  Sheridan  "  honored  the  character  of  the  American  soldier  and  citi- 
zen, and  his  memory  will  be  cherished  with  great  national  pride." 
These  are  all  ex-Confederate  officers.  One  of  the  most  touching  trib- 
utes was  paid  also  by  Colonel  Hooker,  Representative  in  Congress 
from  Mississippi,  by  whom  the  resolutions  of  sympathy  and  honor 
were  introduced. 

Thus  alike  from  old-time  foe,  life-time  friend,  and  the  comrades  of 
a  common  cause,  comes  the  general  tribute,  all  paying  honor  alike  to 
man  and  hero.  The  list  might  be  indefinitely  lengthened.  In  this 
connection  it  will  not  be  out  of  place  to  quote  the  opinion  of  the 
4t  Good  Gray  Poet,"  Walt  Whitman,  as  a  tribute  to  Sheridan's  memory, 
and  as  an  evidence  of  our  national  strength  : 

"  In  the  grand  constellation,"  the  poet  wrote,  "  of  five  or  six  names, 
under  Lincoln's  presidency,  that  history  will  bear  for  ages  in  her  firma- 
ment as  marking  the  last  life  throbs  of  secession  and  beaming  on  its 
dying  gasps,  Sheridan's  will  be  one. 

44  One  consideration  rising  out  of  the  now  dead  soldier's  example  as 
it  passes  my  mind,  is  worth  taking  notice  of.  If  the  war  had  contin- 
ued any  long  time  these  States,  in  my  opinion,  would  have  shown  and 
proved  the  most  conclusive  military  talents  ever  evinced  by  any  nation 
on  earth.  That  they  possessed  a  rank  and  file  ahead  of  all  other  known, 
in  points  of  quality  and  limitlessness  of  number  are  easily  admitted. 
But  we  have,  too,  the  eligibility  of  organizing,  handling,  and  officering 
equal  to  the  other. 

"  These  two,  with  modern  arms,  transportation,  and  inventive 
American  genius,  would  make  the  United  States,  with  earnestness,  not 
able  only  to  stand  the  whole  world,  but  conquer  that  world  united 
against  us." 

General  Sheridan  himself  manifested  sensitiveness  only  on  one  point 
with  regard  to  the  character  publicly  given  him.  That  was  as  to  his 
having  been  both  "  rash  and  reckless"  as  a  commander.  The  facts  of 
his  career  amply  disprove  that  judgment.  At  a  dinner  given  in  1882 
to  the  Loyal  Legion,  at  which  the  general  was  present,  he  said  during 
the  evening's  chat : 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN.  429 

"  People  think  I  am  rash  and  reckless.  I  say  that  there  never  was 
an  officer  more  prudent  than  I.  I  encamped  my  men  well,  watched 
their  rations  and  comforts,  and  when  we  fought  the  enemy  I  gave  them 
the  confidence  of  victory  from  my  knowledge  of  the  enemy  and  my 
confidence  in  the  men." 

Senator  Plumb  has  contributed  to  the  public  memorabilia  in  rela- 
tion to  our  dead  soldier,  the  following  capital  reminiscence.  The  Sen- 
ator, talking  with  Sheridan,  said  : 

"  '  General,  you  were  in  the  West  before  you  came  East.  What  was 
your  opinion  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac?  You  remember  it  was 
criticised  about  that  time  as  not  doing  its  share  of  the  work.' 

"  'Oh,  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  all  right,'  replied  Sheridan. 
'  The  trouble  was  the  commanders  never  went  out  to  lick  anybody,  but 
always  thought  first  of  keeping  from  getting  licked.' 

"  Sheridan,"  continued  the  Senator,  "  came  East  when  the  cavalry 
of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  not  in  good  condition,  and  Grant  gave 
him  the  task  of  reorganizing  it  and  raising  its  efficiency.  He  had 
worked  away  some  time  when  Meade  sent  him  over  the  Rappahannock 
on  a  reconnaissance.  Sheridan  came  back,  and  in  making  his  verbal 
report  referred  to  a  brush  he  had  had  with  Stuart's  cavalry. 

"'Never  mind  Stuart,'  said  Meade,  interrupting,  'he  will  do 
about  as  he  pleases,  anyhow.  Go  on  and  tell  me  what  you  discovered 
about  Lee's  forces.' 

"That  made  Sheridan  mad,  and  he  retorted:  'D — n  Stuart;  I 
can  thrash  h — 1  out  of  him  any  day.' 

"  Meade  repeated  the  remark  to  Grant,  who  queried  :  '  Why  didn't 
you  tell  him  to  do  it  ? ' 

"Not  long  after,  sure  enough,  Sheridan  got  an  order  to  cross  the 
river,  engage  Stuart,  and  clean  him  out. 

"  '  I  knew  I  could  whip  him,'  remarked  Sheridan,  '  if  I  could  only 
get  him  where  he  could  not  fall  back  on  Lee's  infantry.  So  I  thought 
the  matter  over,  and  to  draw  him  on  started  straight  for  Richmond. 
We  moved  fast,  and  Stuart  dogged  us  right  at  our  heels.  We  kept  on  a 
second  day  straight  for  Richmond,  and  the  next  morning  found  Stuart 
in  front  of  us,  just  where  we  wanted  him.  He  had  marched  all  night 
and  got  around  us.  Then  I  rode  him  down.  I  mashed  his  command 
and  broke  up  his  divisions  and  regiments  and  brigades,  and  the  poor 
fellow  himself  was  killed  there.  Right  there,  Senator,  I  resisted  the 
greatest  temptation  of  my  life.  There  lay  Richmond  before  us,  and 
there  was  nothing  to  keep  us  from  going  in.  It  would  have  cost  five 


THE  LIFE  OF 

or  six  hundred  lives,  and  I  could  not  have  held  the  place,  of  course. 
But  I  knew  that  the  moment  it  was  learned  at  the  North  that  a  Union 
army  was  in  Richmond  then  every  bell  would  ring,  and  I  should  have 
been  the  hero  of  the  hour.  I  could  have  gone  in  and  burned  and  killed 
right  and  left.  But  I  had  learned  this  thing  —  that  our  men  knew  what 
they  were  about.  I  had  seen  them  come  out  of  a  fight  in  which  only 
a  handful  had  been  killed,  discontented,  mad  clear  through,  because 
they  knew  an  opportunity  had  been  lost,  or  a  sacrifice,  small  as  it  was, 
had  been  needlessly  made  ;  and  I  had  seen  them  come  out  good  natured, 
enthusiastic,  and  spoiling  for  more,  when  they  had  left  the  ground  so 
thickly  covered  with  dead  that  you  could  have  crossed  it  on  the  bodies 
alone.  They  realized  that,  notwithstanding  the  terrible  sacrifice,  the 
object  gained  had  been  worth  it.  They  would  have  followed  me,  but 
they  would  have  known  as  well  as  I  that  the  sacrifice  was  for  no  per- 
manent advantage.' ' 

Senator  Plumb  added:  "That  exhibits  the  man  and  the  com- 
mander. He  aimed  to  win  and  keep  the  confidence  of  his  men,  and 
he  did  it.  He  fought  for  results  and  not  for  glory." 

In  a  recent  letter  to  the  press,  General  Badeau  has  given  expression 
to  some  views  of  Sheridan's  characteristics  which  help  to  round  out 
our  conception  of  the  strong  but  simple  man,  whom  Badeau  has  known 
so  well.  He  writes  : 

"I  have  seen  scores  of  the  letters  of  Sheridan  to  Grant,  and  he 
wrote  not  a  few  to  me,  on  points  connected  with  his  own  military  his- 
tory. They  were  often  short,  and  at  times  almost  rugged,  but  invari- 
ably to  the  point,  full  of  meat,  and  sometimes  extremely  felicitous  in 
expression,  like  his  ringing  dispatches  from  the  valley :  '  We  sent 
them  whirling  through  Winchester ! '  '  I  deemed  it  best  to  make  a 
delay  of  a  day  to  settle  this  new  cavalry  general.'  'They  were  fol- 
lowed by  our  men  on  the  jump  twenty-six  miles/  He  had  a  large 
share  of  that  power  of  expression  which  men  of  great  executive  ability 
often  possess  when  they  approach  subjects  in  which  they  are  interested. 
He  knew  what  he  meant  and  what  he  wanted,  and  he  could  say  it,  not 
only  so  that  a  child  could  understand,  but  often  with  positive  eloquence. 

"Whenever  the  correspondence  between  Grant  and  Sheridan  dur- 
ing the  reconstruction  period  is  published  it  will  prove  all  that  I  say. 
That  correspondence  was  secret.  Grant's  letters  were  not  copied  in 
the  ordinary  letter  books.  They  were  seen  by  none  of  the  clerks  and  by 
few  of  the  officers  at  the  headquarters  of  the  army.  I  retained  single 
copies  of  them  at  the  time,  and  when  Grant  became  President  I  copied 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  431 

these  into  a  book,  which,  for  some  reason,  was  not  turned  over  to  the 
War  Department ;  but  the  first  drafts  or  rough  copies  he  gave  to  me, 
and  told  me  they  might  serve  as  material  for  a  political  memoir.  All 
that  were  of  importance  I  have  already  so  used,  but  Sheridan's  replies 
have  not  yet  been  given  to  the  world.  They  will  demonstrate  the  ulti- 
mate character  of  the  relations  of  Grant  and  Sheridan,  the  complete 
harmony  in  their  feeling  and  the  accord  in  their  judgment  on  a  sub- 
ject which  they  had  never  discussed  in  spoken  words ;  for  one  was  in 
Washington  and  the  other  in  New  Orleans  before  the  Louisiana  diffi- 
culty arose,  and  they  did  not  meet  after  this  until  Sheridan  had  been 
relieved. 

"  I  consulted  Sheridan  frequently  in  the  course  of  my  historical 
labors,  and  he  gave  me  all  the  assistance  I  asked,  but  desired  me  not  to 
name  him  as  authority  in  political  matters.  He  did  not  wish  to  be  in- 
volved in  political  controversies,  especially  while  he  was  serving  under 
a  Democratic  administration  ;  but  he  promised  to  furnish  me  all  the 
facts  in  his  possession,  and  he  kept  his  word.  After  the  appearance  of 
Grant  in  Peace,  he  assured  me  that  he  would  never  contradict  or  give 
cause  to  contradict  any  statement  that  it  contained. 

"When  he  saw  the  picture  I  tried  to  make  of  himself  for  my  mili- 
tary history,  he  objected  to  my  saying  that  he  swore,  and  I  struck  out 
the  statement ;  but  he  allowed  me  to  describe  him  as  rising  in  his 
stirrups  and  swinging  his  hat  in  the  famous  ride  from  Winchester.  He 
was  loathe,  however,  to  go  down  to  history  as  a  mere  Murat,  and 
naturally  so,  for  he  was  much  more  the  cavalry  leader.  Still,  he  had  all 
the  passion  and  magnetism  that  are  so  irresistible  with  troops.  I  have 
often  been  told  that  on  the  great  ride  his  face  was  fairly  black  with  the 
rage  of  battle,  and  he  cried  out  again  and  again  :  '  We'll  lick  'em  out 
of  their  boots,  boys  !  we'll  lick  'em  out  of  their  boots !'  He  was  all 
the  more  a  general  because  he  shared  and  inspired  the  feeling  of  his 
soldiers. 

' '  I  shall  never  forget  how  he  looked  on  the  day  of  the  surrender  of 
Lee.  His  troops  had  outmarched  the  great  Southern  leader,  and  fairly 
surrounded  him  at  last ;  but  when  this  was  discovered,  Lee  sent  word 
that  he  was  negotiating  with  Grant  for  a  surrender,  and  asked  for  a 
suspension  of  hostilities.  Sheridan  had  heard  nothing  of  the  nego- 
tiations, and  feared  the  report  might  be  a  ruse  of  Lee.  At  this 
moment  I  happened  to  ride  up,  and  Sheridan,  supposing  I  had  come 
from  Grant,  asked  eagerly  if  the  story  was  true.  He  was  pacing  up 
and  down  in  a  piece  of  a  farm  yard  that  looked  like  a  pig-pen,  and  I 


432  THE  LIFE  OF 

could  not  but  think  how  like  his  action  was  to  that  of  a  wild  beast  in  a 
cage.  His  face  flamed,  and  he  clincHed\his  fist  as  he  said  to  me  :  '  I've 
got  'em,  d — n  'em,  I've  got  'em  like  that,'  and  his  nails  were  doubled 
into  his  palm." 

The  same  article  contains  the  following  letter  : 

April  n,  1885.          ") 
HEADQUARTERS  ARMY  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.  ) 

MY  DEAR  BADEAU  :  I  am  requested  by  the  commissioners  of  the 
Soldiers'  Home  to  forward  to  you  the  accompanying  letter  to  be 
delivered  in  case  of  the  death  of  General  Grant  from  his  present  ill- 
ness, and  request  you  to  fill  in  the  proper  date. 

We  will  select  the  most  agreeable  and  commanding  site  on  the 
grounds  of  the  home. 

It  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  use  words  to  express  my  attachment  to 
General  Grant  and  his  family.  I  have  not  gone  to  see  him,  as  I  could 
only  bring  additional  distress.  Then  I  want  to  remember  him  as  I 
knew  him  while  in  good  health.  With  kind  regards,  yours  truly, 

P.  H.  SHERIDAN. 

In  action  Sheridan  was  extraordinary.  Almost  insignificant  in 
appearance  when  on  foot,  when  on  horse-back  he  became  conspicuous 
in  any  body  of  mounted  men.  He  could  be  as  calm  as  a  brazen  figure, 
or  as  fluid  and  flashing  as  a  stream  of  molten  metal.  He  would  choose, 
when  a  battle  began,  a  rising  piece  of  ground,  from  which  he  could 
survey  the  whole  field.  He  sat  his  saddle  like  a  centaur  ;  there  was  no 
better  horseman  in  the  American  Army  ; — and  he  knew  his  horse  also. 
Sitting  silent,  his  wonderful  gray  eyes  —  so  capable  of  expressing  every 
emotion,  passion,  power  known  to  man  —  would  see  every  phase  of  the 
conflict.  They  would  glow,  burn,  flash  —  until  at  a  critical  moment 
he  would  dash  forward,  galloping  direct  to  where  he  was  needed.  It 
was  a  sight,  indeed,  to  see  him  ride  swiftly  along  the  lines  just  before  a 
charge  and  raise  the  troops'  enthusiasm  to  fever  heat.  Then  his  cheek 
glowed  with  excitement,  his  eye  grew  bright,  and  there  was  a  magnetic 
influence  about  him  which  extended  itself  to  every  one  in  the  ranks. 
At  such  moments  he  seemed  transformed,  and  it  was  no  wonder  that 
his  troops  afterward  moved  with  steadiness  and  determination  into  the 
vortex  of  flame  that  awaited  them. 

As  a  practical  soldier,  it  is  doubtful  if  any  army  ever  had  a  better 
one.  He  readily,  almost,  as  it  were,  instantaneously,  mastered  the 
topography  of  the  region  in  which  he  was  operating.  He  was  never 


GEN.  PHIL  H.  SHERIDAN.  4JJ 

surprised.  In  any  army  he  always  proved  on  consultation  to  be  better 
informed  than  any  one  else.  He  had  the  best  of  scouts  —  men  who  were 
ready  to  dare  anything  at  his  orders  or  request.  He  provided  for  his 
troops  amply  and  always  the  best  there  was  to  be  had,  in  commissariat 
or  country,  and  he  proved  himself  to  be  an  admirable  tactician  —  that, 
too,  in  the  most  scientific  sense  of  the  term.  He  was  equally  at  home 
in  handling  every  arm  of  the  service,  though  he  delighted  most  in 
handling  the  cavalry,  to  whose  capacity  for  real  warfare  he  gave  in- 
creased value.  While  a  firm  but  not  extreme  disciplinarian,  he  never 
expected  impossibilities,  or  failed  to  remember  that  he  was  dealing 
with  men  to  whom  martial  service  was  but  an  episode  in  citizenship. 
Personally,  Sheridan  was  a  lovable  man  —  irascible  and  hot-tempered 
at  times — but  aiming  to  be  just,  and  always  ready  to  acknowledge  a 
wrong  or  harsh  judgment.  He  was  honest,  wholly  truthful,  generous, 
and  fearless,  morally,  as  well  as  physically.  In  private  life  most  de- 
voted to  his  home,  his  wife,  and  his  beloved  children.  Among  his 
personal  friends  and  intimates — a  limited  circle,  perhaps  —  he  was 
generally  cheerful  and  companionable.  He  was  always  as  modest  as 
he  was  brave,  and  was  not  readily  drawrn  to  talk  of  himself  or  his  own 
career  and  actions.  He  was  not  a  great  reader,  but  he  knew  well 
what  he  did  read.  Certainly  he  was  not  neglectful  of  his  books,  and 
of  late  years,  and  especially  since  residing  in  Washington,  his  library 
became  more  of  a  social  companion.  He  was  a  lover  of  Shakespeare, 
and  could  quote  aptly  on  occasion. 

A  faithful  member  of  the  chief  army  associations,  the  Loyal  Legion, 
o."  which  he  was  the  commander,  and  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic, 
General  Sheridan  was  a  faithful  attendant  on  the  reunions  which  make 
etfch  year  so  worthy  a  feature  of  our  reminiscent  life.  He  has  spoken 
st  veral  times  to  such  bodies. 

General  Horatio  C.  King,  the  secretary  of  the  Society  of  the  Army 
c  the  Potomac,  United  States  Army,  so  favorably  known  as  a  writer 
oa  military  matters,  as  well  as  a  soldier  in  the  field,  speaks  of  his 
former  commander  in  terms  that  deserve  permanent  record.  u  I  first 
met  General  Sheridan,"  he  says,  "  on  reporting  to  him  for  duty  in 
October,  1864.  Sheridan  at  that  time  was  about  thirty  years  of  age 
[he  was  in  his  thirty-fourth  year]  ;  short  in  stature,  lithe,  active,  straight 
as  an  arrow,  and  every  inch  a  soldier.  He  sat  in  the  saddle  as  if  he 
were  welded  to  the  animal  he  rode.  He  had  a  bright,  piercing  eye,  a 
firm  yet  elastic  tread,  and  was  alert,  quick,  and  energetic  in  every  move- 
ment. He  was  our  Marshal  Ney,  and  inspired  the  most  complete  con- 

28 


THE  LIFE  OF 

fidence.  Men  fight  better  when  they  know  that  the  man  who  leads 
them  has  the  ability  to  extricate  thercrfrom  sudden  and  unforeseen  diffi- 
culties. We  had  many  soldiers  who  were  good  at  a  dash  in  carrying 
out  instructions,  but  miserably  failed  when  they  ran  against  obstacles 
not  anticipated  in  the  plan  of  procedure.  Sheridan,  though  brave  to 
recklessness,  was  never  rash.  He  comprehended  the  situation  before 
he  made  his  dispositions.  He  was  swift  to  plan  and  to  execute,  and 
was,  in  fact,  the  beau  ideal  of  a  brilliant  soldier.  No  officer  was 
more  beloved  by  his  troops.  He  often  spoke  at  the  meetings  of  the 
Society  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac." 

Like  Grant  and  Wellington,  Sheridan  never  considered  himself  a 
speaker,  yet  he  could  express,  among  his  former  comrades  especially, 
in  a  terse  and  happy  manner  the  fitting  thoughts  for  the  occasion.  His 
little  speeches  to  the  Society  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  are  all 
worthy  the  preservation  the  records  give. 

He  was  present  at  the  Boston  reunion  in  1873,  and  said  happily  to 
his  comrades  at  that  gathering  : 

u  We  must  remember  that  at  one  time  the  country  depended  upon 
us,  and  was  obliged  to  call  on  us  as  a  higher  court,  when  all  other 
courts  had  failed,  to  decide  whether  the  Republic  should  live  or  die. 
We  ought  to  feel  proud  of  the  future  we  have  given  to  the  country. 
In  the  last  ten  months  I  have  heard  continual  allusion  to  the  state  of 
our  Republic,  and  in  Europe  they  look  forward  to  the  future  of  this 
country  as  the  future  which  belongs  to  Europe  as  well." 

He  had  but  recently  returned  from  Europe,  where  he  had  witnessed 
the  great  struggle  between  the  German  and  French.  He  had  studied 
widely  and  closely  also,  and  his  words  then  have  a  significance  beyond 
the  day  on  which  they  were  uttered. 

The  year  before,  at  the  Cleveland  reunion,  the  general  responded  to 
the  toast  of  "  The  Cavalry."  General  Sheridan  said  : 

"  I  don't  know  why  I  should  be  selected  to  respond  for  the  cavalry, 
unless  it  is  the  fact,  you  know,  that  I  did  belong  to  the  cavalry  at  one 
time,  but  at  the  same  time  I  must  say  I  was  rather  cosmopolitan.  I 
not  only  belonged  to  the  cavalry,  but  belonged  to  almost  everything 
else.  I  once  even  belonged  to  the  engineer  corps,  and  corduroyed  more 
bridges  about  Shiloh  than  any  man  I  know  of.  After  a  while  I  came 
into  the  cavalry  and  traveled  from  the  West  to  the  East,  and  I  can  assure 
you,  comrades  of  the  cavalry,  that  there  is  no  event  of  my  life  that  I 
look  back  to  with  so  much  pride  as  my  connection  with  the  cavalry." 

There   is    in  these  remarks    a  pleasant  confirmation    of    General 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  4}j 

Badeau's  testimony  that  Sheridan  desired  to  be  rated  as  an  all-round 
soldier.  And  he  was  undoubtedly  a  man  of  military  genius  in  the 
largest  sense  of  the  term.  The  fact  that  from  the  very  outset  of  his 
real  military  activity  he  gave  an  importance  to  the  handling  of  mounted 
masses  not  before  achieved,  shows  this  conclusively.  His  generalship 
is  a  matter  of  universal  recognition. 

There  is  a  world  of  meaning  in  the  earnest  words  he  addressed  to 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  at  the  reunion  held  at  Philadelphia,  in  1878. 
They  embody  the  advice  of  an  earnest  citizen  as  well  as  the  words  ot 
an  honest  soldier,  mindful  of  the  noble  cause  for  which  he  fought,  and 
of  the  high  character  of  the  Nation  whose  soldier  he  was.  They  are  to 
be  read,  not  only  for  what  is  actually  said,  but  for  the  unexpressed  feel- 
ing the  trenchant,  well-considered  words  convey,  as  well  for  the  spirit, 
also,  of  comradeship.  It  was  the  Centennial  year,  also  : 

"  I  want  to  see  the  government  secure,  and  the  cause  for  which  we 
fought  secure.  I  consider  that  we  are  here  as  the  guardians  of  the  honor 
of  the  men  who  now  lie  sleeping  on  many  battle-fields,  and  that  it  is 
our  duty  to  maintain  the  cause  for  which  they  died.  Now  I  do  not 
want  any  more  war.  I  am  the  last  man  in  the  world,  you  know,  to 
want  war.  But  I  think  the  best  way  to  keep  it  from  coming  is  not  to 
be  so  forgiving  as  we  are.  I  do  not  ask  for  anything,  I  do  not  want 
to  be  elected  to  any  office,  but  I  would  like  to  keep  what  I  have  got. 
There  is  no  danger  but  General  Sherman  will  live  longer  than  I  will, 
so  I  have  nothing  to  hope  for  in  the  succession.  I  will  tell  you  one 
thing  —  I  never  yet  have  heard  a  single  address  by  any  one  in  this  army 
society  that  I  thought  embodied  what  the  society  most  wanted  to  hear. 
They  all  want  to  talk  about  the  cause  which  led  to  the  war,  and  about 
emancipation,  and  all  such  things.  We  do  not  care  about  hearing  that. 
It  is  all  over.  The  problem  is  worked  out.  What  we  now  want  to 
hear  is  something  about  our  old  comrades  and  about  the  battles  we 
fought,  and  the  good  times  we  had,  and  the  bad  times  we  had — and 
things  of  that  kind." 

At  New  Haven  in  1878,  he  said  at  the  reunion  : 

"  I  have  a  few  earnest  words  to  say  to  you,  comrades.  I  have 
remarked  during  the  day  that  we  are  thinning  out.  Every  year  some 
of  us  go  ;  we  are  all  going,  you  know  —  we  must  go  sometime  — 
and  it  seems  to  me  that  every  succeeding  year  ought  not  to  allow  any 
troubles  which  may  come  up  or  which  may  have  existed  heretofore  to 
destroy  the  good  feeling  that  we  ought  to  have  for  each  other.  If  I  had 
anything  against  anybody  heretofore  belonging  to  this  army,  I  would 


436  THE  LIFE  OF 

just  like  to  shake  hands  with  him  now.  One  thing  you  can  depend 
upon,  there  is  nobody  belonging  to  thrs  Srmy  that  can  get  up  any  quar- 
rel with  me." 

And  General  Sheridan  never  had  a  dispute  with  any  one,  in  or  out 
of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  over  any  event  or  action  in  which  he  was 
a  participant. 

In  a  pertinent,  if  brief  address  at  the  Burlington,  Vermont,  reunion 
of  1880,  he  gave  a  comforting  assurance,  as  a  military  expert,  which  is 
worth  while  remembering.  In  responding  to  the  toast  of  the  "  Army 
and  Navy,"  the  general  said  : 

"  There  are  about  three  millions  of  men  in  the  United  States  be- 
longing to  the  army  and  navy.  I  think  it  is  unnecessary  to  count  the 
little  fraction  of  the  regular  army  that  exists  now,  or  of  the  navy,  because 
they  would  be  nothing  but  a  nucleus  in  case  the  country  was  required 
anew  to  engage  in  war.  I  hope  no  war  will  ever  happen  that  will  call 
out  the  entire  number  of  men  we  can  turn  out  in  this  country.  I  do  not 
believe  such  a  war  will  ever  occur.  We  have  the  ocean  as  a  fortifica- 
tion. It  would  take  more  than  all  the  shipping  in  Europe  to  bring 
men  sufficient  to  this  country  to  make  one  campaign.  I  mean  all  the 
shipping  of  Europe,  unmolested,  if  it  were  permitted  to  sail,  couldn't 
carry  men  and  material  sufficient  for  one  campaign,  to  meet  the  force 
we  could  command.  It  would  take  more  than  all  Europe  could  do." 

A  more  recent  speech  was  made  in  1886,  at  Creston,  Iowa.  The 
speech  was  wholly  impromptu,  and  there  was,  fortunately,  a  good 
stenographer  present.  General  Sheridan's  manner  was  easy  and  his 
speech  flowed  unembarrassed.  He  said  : 

u  Comrades,  I  came  here  to-day  to  see  you  and  talk  with  you  and 
skake  hands  with  you,  while  Colonel  Carr  and  others,  you  know, 
came  here  to  make  eloquent  addresses  for  you  to  listen  to.  I  think  he 
has  been  too  eulogistic  of  me  in  his  remarks.  It  is  true  that  I  fought  in 
almost  everybody's  army,  from  Pea  Ridge  to  Appomattox,  and  although 
I  fought  with  cavalry  and  infantry  and  on  every  line  of  operation,  and 
always  had  to  change  and  take  new  men  on  new  lines.  I  was  very  suc- 
cessful. I  went  through  all  the  grades  they  had  in  the  volunteer  ser- 
vice, and  then  I  commenced  and  went  through  all  the  grades  in  the 
regular  service,  and  the  date  of  every  commission  that  I  have  is  the 
date  of  a  battle.  Now  I  want  to  say  to  you,  comrades,  this  —  that  I  am 
indebted  to  the  private  in  the  ranks  for  all  this  credit  that  has  come 
to  me.  [Applause,  long,  and  continued.] 

"  He  was  the  man  who  did  the  fighting  ;  and  the  man  who  carried  the 
musket  is  the  greatest  hero  of  the  war,  in  my  opinion.  I  was  nothing 


GEN.  PHIL.  H.  SHERIDAN.  437 

but  an  agent.  I  knew  how  to  take  care  of  men.  I  knew  what  a  soldier 
was  worth,  and  I  knew  how  to  study  the  country  so  as  to  put  him  in 
right.  I  knew  how  to  put  him  in  a  battle  when  one  occurred,  but  I 
was  simply  the  agent  to  take  care  of  him,  and  he  did  the  work.  Now, 
comrades,  these  are  common-sense  things,  and  I  can't  say  them  in  very 
flowery  language  ;  but  they  are  true,  nevertheless,  and  they  are  true,  not 
of  me  alone,  but  of  everybody  else.  It  is  to  the  common  soldier  that 
we  are  indebted  to  any  credit  that  came  to  us. 

"  I  am  glad  to  see  you  here  to-day,  gentlemen,  and  I  am  glad  to  be 
with  you  on  this  occasion.  There  are  many  here  to-day  who  served  in 
the  field  with  me,  and  it  is  a  great  pleasure  to  me  to  find  them  out, 
and  they  have  been  very  kindly  in  their  remarks  to  me.  While  they 
were  with  me  I  certainly  did  all  I  could  for  them.  I  often  laid  awake 
planning  for  their  welfare,  and  I  never  killed  a  man  unnecessarily.  One 
great  trouble  with  men  who  command  troops  is  that  they  kill  men  un- 
necessarily. You  may  kill  as  many  men  as  you  choose  if  you  give 
them  an  equivalent  for  the  loss.  Men  do  not  like  to  be  killed  for 
nothing ;  they  do  not  like  to  have  their  heads  rammed  against  a  stone 
wall  unless  for  some  good  results.  Those  are  the  points  I  made  during 
the  war.  Whenever  I  took  men  into  a  battle  I  gave  them  victory  as 
the  result  of  the  engagement,  and  that  was  always  satisfactory." 

A  soldier's  speech  that  —  aptly  expressing  the  feelings  of  men  and 
commanders  alike.  A  longer,  more  finished,  and  quite  a  notable 
address  was  that  delivered  before  the  graduating  class  at  West  Point,  in 
June,  1887.  This  dealt  with  the  life  of  the  graduates,  their  obligations, 
and  the  duties  they  owe  to  their  profession  and  the  country.  General 
Sheridan  could  tell  a  good  story,  and  tell  it  wrell.  Among  his  army 
friends  he  was  quite  apt  to  do  so.  His  dispatches,  reports,  and  other 
official  papers  show  him  to  have  possessed  a  simple  and  direct  style  of 
writing,  which  became  rather  racy  and  epigrammatic  on  occasion. 

A  strong,  simple  man  this  —  very  human  withal,  and  close  to  our 
common  life.  The  genuine  child  of  democracy,  he  honored  it  by  his 
deeds,  made  it  more  glorious  by  his  services,  and  proved  that  once  felt 
in  a  man's  blood  and  brains,  democracy  contains  the  civic  philter  which 
cures  even  the  lofty  if  cruel  ambition  that  history  has  too  often  identified 
with  a  soldier's  successful  career.  In  the  American  Democracy  Sheri- 
dan's life,  like  Grant's  and  Sherman's,  with  all  their  comrades',  gives  us 
proof  that  the  equality  of  man  before  the  law  is  the  very  best  guarantee 
that  under  the  law  the  loftiest  service,  the  bravest  deeds,  the  most  daring 
of  intellectual  activity,  must  all  tend  steadily  to  the  common  advantage 
—  to  the  uplifting  and  glory  alone  of  the  Commonwealth. 


INDEX. 


Aaron,  Barney,  357. 

Abell.   Judge    E.,    removed  from 

office,  339. 

Academy  of  the  Visitation,  S71. 
Alabama,  97. 

Northern,  147, 155. 
Alaska,  Purchase  of,  323. 
Albany,   N.  Y.,   Sheridan's   birth- 
place, 23. 

Alcott,  Louisa  M.,  at  Nonquit,  376. 
Aldermen  of  New  Orleans  removed 

from  office,  340. 

Alger,  General  B.  A.,  46-49,  55,  61, 
158, 182,  250,  225. 

At  St  Matthew's,  408. 
At  the  grave,  416. 
Allegheny  Mountains,  125.  257. 
Allison,  Senator,  at  St.  Matthew's, 

4u7. 

Amelia  Court  House,  290.  293. 
Anderson.  Captain  H.  B.,  in  com- 
mand of  Guard  of    Honor   at 
Sheridan's  funeral,  390. 
Anderson's  Farm,  109. 
Anderson,   General   E.  H.,   73,   88, 

135.  158, 160 
Appalachian  Mountains,  77,  110, 123, 

300. 
Appomattox,  20,  239,  287,  289.  290,  294, 

295.  297,  300,  317,  321,  424. 
Appomattox,    Surrender     at,    301, 
303. 

Court  House,  248,  26i>. 
Araphoes,  345. 
Arkansas,  155. 

Department  of,  321. 
Arlington,  308,  417,421. 
Arlington,  Cemetery  of,  382,  406. 

Procession  to,  415. 
Army  Corps,  Third,   General  Gil- 
bert, 70,  74. 

First,  General  A.  D.  McCook, 

70. 

Twentieth,  McCook,  76. 
Fourteenth,  78. 
Tenth,   T.  L.     Crittenden, 

80-90 
Fifth,  270,  271,  282,    286,   289, 

290.  292. 
Fourteenth,  102, 108,  114,  116, 

128,  321. 

Nineteenth  257. 
Ninth,  126,  289. 
Second,  284,  291,  294. 
Seventh,  322. 
Sixth,  257,  285,  286,  291,  292. 
Twenty-fifth,  288. 
Twenty-first,  114. 
Twenty-fourth,  284. 
Twentieth,  108,  114,  115,  116, 

118. 
Army  of  the  Border.  Union,  320. 

Of  the  Cumberland,  94,  97. 
106,  110,  111,  120,  124,  125, 128, 
130,  135,  147,  148, 150, 155, 156, 
343 

Of  the  James,  283,  321. 
Of  the  Mississippi,  97. 
Of  the  Ohio,  125, 155. 
Of  the  Potomac.  113,  124, 153, 

155,  156,  157,  158,  364. 
Of  the  Southwest  Missouri, 


>f  the  Te 


Of  the  Tennessee,  113, 125, 126, 
145, 147,  155. 


Army  of    Missouri,   Confederate, 
under  Price,  41. 

Of  Virginia,  311. 

Of  Virginia,  Last  charge  of 

the,  294. 

Arthur,  President,  359,  368. 
Artillery: 

E'ghth  Indiana  Battery,  117. 

Flood's  Battery,  99. 

Fifth  Ohio  Battery,  103. 

Third  Artillery,  396. 
Asboth,  General,  52,  64,  66. 
Ashby,  Turner,  305,  306,  313. 
Ashby's  Gap,  258. 
Ashland,  162, 265. 
Athens,  Tenn.,  127. 
Atlanta,  Ga..  107,  108, 114, 136, 177, 179. 
Augusta,  Ga.,  258. 
Austrian-French  Invaders,  322. 
Averill,  Brigadier-General,  153.  171, 
175,  182,  186,  195,  202,  240,  242,  252, 
257,  260,  311. 
Avery,  Captain,  132. 
Aylett's.  163. 
Ayres,  General,  270  271,  276,  278. 

Babcock.  Colonel,  301. 

Badeau,  General  Adam,  145, 153,  265, 

267,  301,  318,  352,  430,432,  435. 
Baird,  Major-General  Absalom,  97, 

108,116,125.128,  130,   134,  135,  335, 

336. 

Baldwin,  Colonel,  103. 
Baldwin,  Miss  ,  64,  66. 
Baltimore,  176. 
Banks,  General,  97,  106,  125,  155,  157, 

331. 

Bardstown,  Ky.,  71. 
Barlow,  165. 

Barnard.  General,  248, 301. 
Barriuger,  Brigadier-General  Bu- 

f  us,  168, 169. 

Bartlett,  General,  271,  278. 
Bate,  General,  136. 
Bate's  Brigade,  Confederate,  103. 
Battle  above  the  Clouds,  129. 
Battle-flag  of   General   Sheridan's 

Corps,  401. 
Baxter,  278. 
Bayard,  General  Geo.  D.,  241, 311. 

Secretary,  at  St.  Matthew's, 

Baylor,  328. 

Bazaiue.  Marshal,  322,  323. 

Beatty.  90. 

Beatty's  Brigade,  109. 

Beaumont.  Battle  of,  350,  353. 

Beauregard,  General   P.  G.,  38,  46, 

52,  53.  66.  173,  305. 
Beaver  Dam,  162,  263. 
Belle  Grove,  219,  221. 

Isle,  254. 

Bells  tolled  at  way  stations,  395. 
Belmont,Bepresentative  Perry,  362. 
Beraske,  Corporal,  390. 
Bermuda  Hundred,  172,  258. 
Berryville,  187, 193,  258. 
Big  Thunder,  359. 
Birney,  General,  186. 
Bismarck,  Prince.  H50,  352.  354. 
Blair,  General  C.  H.,  123,  238,  365. 

Austin,  Governor,  of  Michi- 
gan, 47,  48.  63, 182. 

General  F.  P.,  65. 
Blake,  Corporal,  390. 


Bloody  Angle,  153. 
Blue  Bidge.  123,  257,  258.  260,  261. 
Blunt,  Colonel,  at  Nonquit,  393, 394. 
MaJor-General  James  G.,  167, 

238,  320,  322,  345. 
Stanhope,  360. 
Bolivar  Heisrhts,  142. 
Bonaparte,  Napoleon,  183. 

Sheridan  compared  to,  423. 
Bonsai,  Mrs.  M«P.,  198. 
Booneville,  Miss  ,  49,  52,  65,  237,264. 
Booth,  Wilkea,  317. 
Bottom's  Bridge,  163. 
Boulanger,  General.  425. 
Bowers,  Colonel  T.  S.,  301. 
Boweryman,278. 
Bowling  Green,  163. 
Boydton  road,  269,  270,  271,  273,  276, 

286 

Boyle,' General  T.  J.,  67,  97, 125. 
Boynton,  General    H.  V.,  130,  131, 

132, 135. 

Bradford  Island,  36,  37. 
Bradbury,  Captain,  196. 
Brasrg.  General,  70,  130, 147,  148. 
Bragg's  Defeat,  verse,  96. 
Brannan,  General,  104,  106,  115-118, 

125. 

Branson,  W.  W..  conductor,  395. 
Brashton  Lawyer,  24. 
Breckenridge,  General  John  B.,  78, 

82, 115,  116,  135,  176. 
Bridgeport,  106, 108,  113,114,  124, 125, 

127. 

Briggs,  Colonel,  252,  295,  296. 
Brock  road,  160. 
Brooks  Gap,  243. 
Brothers,  Dominican,  408. 
Brown,  John,  187. 
Brown's  Ferry,  126, 129. 
Brownsville,  Texas,  321,322,  323,  324, 


Bryantsville,  Ky.,  71. 
Buchanan.  Sergeant,  390. 
Bnckner,  General,  73,  74, 106, 109. 
Buell,  General  Don  Carlos,  42, 64 -74, 

145,  310. 

Buford,  General,  158,  311. 
Bull  Run  Mountain,  253. 

Virginia.  322. 
Bunker  Hill.  193-195. 

Breastworks  of,  369. 
Burkes  Station,  173. 
Burksville,  290. 
Burlington,  Vt.,  436. 
Burnside.  General  A.  E,,  106,  107, 112, 

113, 124-127,  136,  148,  158,  164,  165, 

172,  177,  178,  240,  251. 
Burr,  Colonel  F.  A.,  298. 
Butler,  General  B.  F.,  163,  172,  177, 

331. 

Butler,  Major-General  M.C.,  168, 169. 
Butterfleld,  General  Daniel,  355,  427. 
Byran,  Colonel  T.  M.,  Jr.,  158. 

Cairo,  124. 

Campbell,  Captain,  54;  Colonel,  364. 

Camp  Supply,  Tragedy  at,  372. 

Wildcat,  76 

Canby,  Colonel,  36,  40,  259. 
Capehart,  Colonel,  260. 
Caperton's  Ferry,  107,  108. 
Carlin,  Colonel,  73, 104. 
Carlisle,  Speaker,  405,  408,  414. 
Carlton,  328. 


440 


INDEX. 


Carter,  Colonel,  97,  222. 
Carter's  Creek,  100-1. 
Carthage,  Tenn..  100. 
Cascades,  Ore.,  36. 
Cassell,  Sam,  27. 
Castle  Thunder,  254. 
Catharpin's  Furnace,  160. 
Cattell's  Gap  road,  116. 
Cavalry: 

Fifth  Cavalry,  345. 

First  Cavalry  Division.  260, 

First    Colorado    Volunteer 

Cavalry,  328. 

First  Virginia  Cavalry,  312. 
Fourth  Cavalry,  396. 
P.  M.  B.  Cavalry,  143. 
Second  Iowa  Cavalry,  £2. 
Second   Michigan   Cavalry 

45,  48,  49.  52,  64. 
Seventh  Michigan  Cavalry 

295. 

Tenth  Cavalry,343. 
Third  Cavalry  Division,  260 
Cedar  Creek,  168,  183,  203,   206,  218 

219,  221,  229,  230,  248,  311,  364,  391. 
Centennial  Year,  435. 
Centerville,  99,  258. 
Central  Hill,  Somerville,   Battery 

on,  369. 

Cetico  Creek,  127, 128. 
Chalmers,  General  J.  R.,  51,  52,  61, 

64,  89.  90  253,  305,  306,  :ilO. 
Chamberlain,  General,  271,  274,  278. 

Major.  177. 

Chambersburg,  Peiin.,  180. 
Chamblis,  Brigadier-General  J.  R., 

168. 
Chaplin's  Creek,  72,  74. 

Hills,  72,  77. 

Chapman,  Colonel  Geo.  H.,  158. 
Charles,  Archduke,  425. 
Charleston,  187,  193,  258,  259. 
Charlotte,  99. 
Charlottesville,  161, 170, 172,  206,  260, 

261,  264. 
Chattanooga,  69,  77,  80,  97,  98, 104-129, 

136, 145-148,  150, 155,  159.  423. 
Cheatham,  General,  19, 72, 73, 80, 85-88 

115, 116, 135,  311. 
Cherokee  Country,  322. 
Cherokeos.  Land  sold  by,  347. 
Chesterfield,  163. 
Chester  Gap.  258. 
Cheyennes,  345,  347. 
Chicago,  214,  354,  357,  358,  360,  361. 

Fire,  349. 
Chickahominy,  52,  162,  163,  248,  249, 

309. 
Chickamauga,  109,  114-127,  131,  134, 

136,  147,  148,  159,  167, 172,  364,  423. 
Chihuahua,  Mexico,  326,  327, 328. 
Childs,  George  W.,  at   Sheridan's 
funeral.  408. 

At  the  grave,  416. 
Chivington.   Colonel,   attacks   the 

Kiowas,  345. 

Christie.Deputy  Sergeant-at-Arms, 
acts  as  marshal  at  Sheridan's 
funeral,  407. 
Cincinnati,  155, 230. 
City  Point,  172, 173,  185,  186,  203,  253. 

259,  265,  266,  267,  269,  285. 
Claiborne  road,  289. 
Cleburne.  General  Patrick,  73, 83,  86, 

87,  91,  103, 115,  117,  305. 
Cleveland,  President,  368. 

Sends    message  of    condo- 
lence  to  Mrs.  Sheridan, 

Announces  Sheridan's  death 

to  Congress,  385 
Sends  a  floral  tribute,  400. 
And  wife  attend  Sheridan's 

funeral,  405. 
And  family  at  St.  Matthew's, 

408,  409. 

Cloud,  General,  238. 
Clous.  Major  J.  w.f  348. 
Coburn,  Colonel  99, 100. 
Cocherell,  Senator,  428. 


Cole,  Major  Henry  A.,  138, 143. 
Cole's  Cavalry,  137,  138,  139,  140, 144 
Cole's  Ferry,  172. 
Columbia  Furnace,  2I5.V  <r 
Columbia  River.  36.  k 
Columbia,  S.  C.,  258,  262.  263,  265. 
Cold  Harbor,  158, 163, 164,165,  171,250 
Comanches,  345. 
Confederate  cavalry,  304,  305. 
Flag  of  truce,  295. 
Loss  at  Stone  River,  97. 
President,  Flight  of,  317. 
War  Department,  98. 
Conference  to   arrange    terms   o 

surrender,  300. 
Congress  adjourns,  387. 
Conrad,  Major  Holmes.  246. 
Consul  to  Hong  Kong,  314. 
Conveying    the    dead    general    to 

Washington,  393. 
Cooke,  Brigadier-General  Philip  St 

George,  238.  240,  310,  311. 
Cooley,  Benjamin  B.,  203. 
Cooper's  Pass,  Lookout  Mountain 

114. 

Corbin's  Bridge,  159. 
Corinth,  Siege  of,  18,  43,  45,  46,  52,65, 

66.  69, 106,  124,  148. 
Cortinas,  323, 324,  326. 
Coulter,  278. 

Court  House  road,  269,  273. 
Cowan,  105. 

Cox,  Major  General  J.  D.,  302. 
Crab  Orchard.  76,  77. 
"  Craddock,  Charles  Egbert,"  Mur- 

f  reesboro',  Miss  ,  94. 
Craig,  S.,  flagman.  396. 
Crawfish  Spring,  114, 116. 
Crawford.  General  270,  271,  276, 277, 

278.  289. 
Crawford,  S.  J.,   Ex-Governor,  344 

345. 

Creston.  Iowa,  436 
Crittenden,    Major-General  T.  L., 

71,  76,  80,  97,  104,  109, 114,  115,  116, 

Crocker.  General.  111. 

Crook,  General  George,  97,  153.  158, 

171,  175,   179,   186,  194,  195,  197,  202, 

207,240,250,  257,272,  283,  290,  291, 

292,  293,  294,  300,  313,  416. 

Crosby.  Schuyler,  348,  408. 

Cruft,  General,  91. 116  129. 

Culpepper.  206,  247,  253. 

Cumberland,  180. 

Mountains,  104,  105,  112,  113, 

123. 

Department  of,  78, 101. 
Gap,  68,  76. 
River,  77,  111. 
Curtis,   Major-General  Samuel  R., 
41,42,43,44,68,   156,  304,  320,  322, 
359. 

Custer,  General  George  A.,  20,  24, 
158,  160,  172,  182,  186,  210,  240,  243, 
244,  246,  247,  25u,  253,  260,  261,   262, 
263,  272,  274,  275,  279,  282,   293-297, 
302,  303,  307,  311,  313,  359,  364. 
Custis  family,  The.  420. 
Cut  Mouth  John,  Indian  scout,  37. 

Dabney's  Mill,  267,  286 
Dahlgren,  Ulric,  158,  240,  253,  254. 
Dakota.  358,  359. 
Dana,  Charles  A.,  125,  128,  187,  215, 

251. 427. 

Daney's  farm,  271. 
Danville  road,  290. 

Kentucky,  71,  293,  294. 
Davies,  General  H   K,  158,  182,  187, 

253,  291. 

Davis,  Jefferson,  39,  239,  252,  254,  262, 
263,  305. 

Colonel  G.  W.,  at  St.  Mat- 
thew's, 408. 

General  Jeff.  C.,  65,  82.  83,  86, 
87,  91,  99,  102,   104,  107,    108, 
115,  116,  117,  118,  125. 
Dawes,  Senator,  at  St.  Matthew's, 
407. 


Day,  Corporal,  390. 
Dayton,  Ohio,  203. 
Dearing,  W.  H.  F.,  168. 
Deatousville.  291. 
Decatur,  Alabama,  69,  148. 
Deep  Bottom,  177, 178. 
Creek,  290,  291. 
Democracy,  American,  437. 
Dent,  Colonel  F.  T.,  301. 
Departments: 

Of  Louisiana,  321. 
Of  Ohio,  112. 
Of  the  Gulf,  125. 
Of  the  Northwest,  322. 
Deschard,  General,  104,  105, 106. 
Deven,  General  Thomas  C.,  158.  182, 

186,  210,  *53,  260,  262,  263, 272,  274, 

294. 

Dickinson,  Secretary,  at  St.  Mat- 
thew's, 408. 
Dinwiddie   Court    House,  248,  269, 

270,  272,  273,  281,  285,  286,  289. 
Doane,  J.  W.,  357. 
Doctor's  Creek,  Ky.,  72. 
Dodge.  General  G.  M.,  127,  148. 
"  Dog-Soldiers,"  The,  345.  346,  347. 
Dolph,  Senator,  at  St.  Matthew's, 

407. 
Doniphan's    Missouri    Command, 

326. 
Donovan,  Brigadier  General  John, 

168. 

Douglas,  Colonel,  99. 
Drum       Barracks,      Wilmington, 

Southern  California,  328. 
Dry  Valley,  125. 

Road,  115, 118. 
Duck  River,  100, 112. 
Duffle.  General  A.  N.,  253. 
Duguidsville.  262. 
Duke,  238.  255,  306,  311. 
Durant,  Thomas  J.,  339. 
Durell,  Judge,  332. 

Eagleville,  99. 

Early,  General  Jubal  A.,  168, 171, 176, 
177,  179,  181,  182,  183,  185,  186,  195, 
*02,  204,  205,  206,  207,  218,  220,  222, 
229,  257,  260,  261,  265,  299,  312,  313, 
346. 

Eastport,  Miss.,  259. 

Ector,  91. 

Edgefield  Junction,  78. 

Edmunds,  Senator,  of  Vermont,  of- 
fers a  resolution,  387. 
At  St.  Matthew's,  407. 

Edwards,  Colonel,  212. 

Elk  River,  104,  105. 

Elliott,  Colonel  W.  L.,  Second  Iowa 
Cavalry,  52,  66. 

Elliott,  General,  343,  345. 

Ellison,  Lieutenant,  103. 

Elliston,  Miss.,  66. 

El  Paso,  Texas,  322,  326,  328. 

Emory,  Colonel,  311. 

General,  194,  195,  202,  209. 

Endicott,  Secretary,  426. 

Sends  message  of  condolence 

to  Mrs  Sheridan,  3-*6. 
At  Sheridan's  funeral,  408. 

Escabedo,  General,  323,  324. 

Estelle  Springs,  104. 

Ewell,  General,  158,  294,  305. 

Evarts,  Senator,  at  St.  Matthew's, 
407. 

Fagan,  General.  41. 

Fairchild,  Secretary,  408. 

Fairfax  Court  House,  258. 

Farmville,  290.  300,  313. 

Farnsworth,  General  Eben  J.,  240. 

Farragut,  Admiral  331. 

Farwell,  Mr.,  of  Illinois,  introduces 
pension  bill.  388. 

Fayetteville.  N.  C..  106,  258,  259. 

Ferrero.  General.  172. 

Field.  Marshal,  at  Sheridan's  fune- 
ral, 40H. 

Fifth  Reconstruction  District,  338. 

Fink  and  Dittoe,  24. 


INDEX. 


441 


Finnegas,  174. 

Fisher's  Hill.  200,  202,  203,  204,  207, 

218,  219,  242,  284. 
Five  Forks,  24£,  266-271,  273,  275,  278, 

280,  282,  285,  286,  289,  297,  320,  423. 
Flag  of  truce  brought  by  General 
Whittaker,  296. 

At  half-mast,  Order  concern- 
ing, 386. 

Of  General  Sheridan's  divis- 
ion headquarters,  402. 
Flanders,  Benjamin  J.,  339. 
Floral  tributes  on  the  altar  steps, 

Florida,  330. 
Floyd,  John  B.,  39. 
Foley,  Bishop,    conducts  General 
Sheridan's  marriage,  373. 

Consecrates    Sheridan's 

grave,  406,  407. 

Recites  the  offices  at  Sheri- 
dan's grave,  416. 
Ford's  Station,  173. 
Forrest,   General   N.  B.,  80,  97,  99, 

100, 116,  217,  255,  305,  306,  310. 
Forsyth,  Brigadier-General  James 
W.,  201,  251,  340,  350,  352.  354,  366, 
405,  416. 

At  St.  Matthew's,  407. 
Forsyth,  Colonel  G.  S.,  251. 

At  St.  Matthew's,  408. 
Fort    Adams    furnishes  guard  of 
honor  at  Nonquit,  390. 
Duncan,  34. 
Fisher,  259. 
Gibson,  156,  322. 
Kearney,  40. 
Leaven  worth,  40, 322,  343,  346, 

359. 

Smith,  Ark.,  157. 
Standish,  369. 
Stedman,  266. 
Still,  307. 
Union,  371. 
Wise.  40. 
Wood,  34. 

Franco-Prussian  war  declared,  349 
Frankfort.  Ky.,  71. 
Franklin,  Tex.,  99,  100,  101,  138,  240 
Frederick,  Md.,  138. 
Fredericksburg,  311. 
Fremont,  General  John  C.,  42,  252 
Front  Royal,  194.  202,  258.    • 
Frye,  Senator,  427. 
Fullerton,  General  J.  S.,    128,  129, 

132. 
Funeral  escort,  387. 

March,  Order  of,   414,  415. 
Services,  Description  of ,  407- 

414. 
Services,  Time  occupied  by, 

407. 

Train,  394.  395. 
Funkhouser,  Colonel,  102. 
Furnace  road,  160. 


Gaines  Mills,  308. 
Gambetta,  355. 


Girst,  General,  117. 

Goldsboro',  258. 

Goochlam?,  Va.,263. 

Goode,  Thomas  F.,  314. 

Gordon,  General  John  B.,  18,  21,  46- 
49,  61,  67, 185,  217,  223,  295,  296,  297, 
298,  302,  305. 

Gordon's  Mills,  109, 116. 

Gordonsville,  161,  206,  258. 

Govern,  General,  116,  117. 

Graham,  David,  396. 

Granger,  General  Gordon,  67, 97, 101, 
105, 115,  119,  120,  125,  128,  130,  131, 
132, 134, 147, 148,  182.  240. 

Grant,    Colonel    Frederick   D.,   at 
St.  Matthew's,  418. 
At  Arlington,  416. 

"  Grant,  Sherman.  Sheridan,"  poem 
by  R.  W.  Gilder,  397. 

Grant,  U.  S.-17.  18,  45,  46,  53,  66,  „.. 
68,  77,  98,  101,  111,  115,  124, 137,  145. 
146,  147,  148,  150,  153,  155,  156,  159, 
160,  164,  168,  171,  172,  174,  178,  179, 
180,  181,  188,  193,  201,  203,  206,  247, 
251,  252,  255,  258,  259,  262,  264,  265, 
266,  267,  269,  273,  281,  282,  285,  286, 


Garfield,  General,  118,  120. 

Garge,  354. 

Garrett,  Cyrus,  230. 

Gate  City  of  the  Confederacy,  109, 
113, 123. 

Gay,  Captain  Ebeuezer,  71. 

Gay,  Shawn ee  agent,  38. 

Geary,  General,  125,  126,  129. 

Georgia  77,  97,  111. 

German  soldiers'  opinions  of  Sheri- 
dan, 425. 

Getty,  General,  159. 

Gettysburg,  157,  247,  123,  218. 

Gibbons,  Cardinal,  408,  409. 

Delivers  funeral  discourse, 
410-413. 

Gibbons,  General,  21,  165,  295. 

Gifford,  R.  Swain,  Residence  of,  376. 

Gila  Valley,  Ariz..  328. 

Gilbert,  General  C.  C.,  70,  74,  76,  97. 

Gilder,  Richard  Watson,  396. 

Gilmore,  Colonel  Harry,  259,  306. 


296,  297.  298.  300,  301,  S17,  323,  330, 

332,  365,  369,  430,  431,  434. 

Sends  Sheridan  to  New  Or- 
leans, 341. 

Elected  President,  347. 
Gravelly  Run,  270,  271,  272,  273,  276, 

278,  280,  281. 

Gravelock,  battle  of,  350,  3L3. 
Graves,  Doctor,  of  Providence,  324. 
Greene.    Assistant  Adjutant-Gene- 
ral, 67. 

Greenhault,  Sergeant,  390. 
Gregg,  General   David  McM.,  158, 

159,  182,  186,  241.  252,  253,  274. 
Gregg,    Colonel   J.  Irviu,  158,  182. 
Gregory,  General,  271,  276. 

Colonel  James  F.,  at  St.  Mat- 
thew's, 408. 

Greiner,  Captain,  24,   32. 
Gridiron  Club,  367. 
Grier,  Colonel,  311. 
Grierson,  General  B.  R.,  65,  69,  238, 

240,  252,  255,  259. 
Griffin,  General,  21,  271,  276,  277,  278, 

290,  295. 

Grose,  General,  91. 109, 116. 
Grover,  General,  196,  212. 
Gruesal,  Colonel  Nicholas,  71. 
Guard  of  Honor,  396. 
Guaymas,  827. 
Guinney's  Station,  163. 
Gulf  Department,  113. 
Guutowu,  Mississippi,  32,  64. 
Gwin,  319,  278,  323. 

Hall,  Colonel  A.  S.,  100. 

Halleck,  General  H.  W.,  18,   42,  46, 

53,  61,  64,  69, 95, 106, 124. 127, 143, 145, 

146,  157,  170,  180,  182,  204,  206. 
Haller,  Major,  38. 
Halltown,  181. 
Halpeu,  Corporal,  390. 
Hampton,          Lieutenaut-General 

Wade,  168,  171,  174,  217,  305,  306, 

309.  310,  311,  314. 
Hancock,  General  W.    S.,  125,   158, 

159,  160,  164,  172,  173,  177,  186,  265. 

Hanover  Court  House,  310. 
Hardee,  General.  67,  72,  74,  80,  82,  83, 

86,  89,  91,  97,  104,  107,  135. 
Hardeeville,  258. 
Harding,  Colonel,  99. 
Hardwicksville.  262. 
Harker,  General,  119,  136. 

i-'s  Ferry,  139,  142,  176,  181, 188, 


Harrison,    General  Benjamin,  103, 

107. 

Harrodsburg,  Ky.,  71,  76, 
Hartsuff,  General,  312,  313. 
Hascall,  90. 
Hatch,  Lieutenant-Colonel,  54. 


Hatcher's  Run.  269,  270,  289. 
Hawley,  Senator,  360,  388,  408,  416s 

427. 

Haxall's  Landing,  163. 
Hays,  Brigadier-General  Alexander 

killedfl59. 
Hays,  Fort,  346, 348. 
Hazen,  General,  92,  107,  108, 117, 125. 
Heberton,  H.,  baggage-master,  395. 
Herron,  Andrew  S.,  removed  from 


Hiawassee, '___. 

Hill,  Colonel   Herbert  E.,  211,   212, 

305,  369,  390. 

Hill,  General  A.  P.,  158. 
Hindman,  115, 126. 
Hinks,  172. 

Hiscock's  Battery,  84. 
Hoar,  Senator,  at  St.  Matthew's,  407. 
Hood,  General,  115, 117, 120,  305. 
Hooker,  Colonel,  attends  General 

Sheridan's  funeral,  405,  428. 

General,  124,  125,  126,  127,  128, 

129,  130,  147,  232,  24l. 
Mr.,  of   Mississippi,    offer* 

resolutions,  388. 
Holly  Springs,  Mississippi,  66. 
Hoover's  Gap,  102. 
Horse,  General  Sheridan's,  follows 

the  general's  coffin.  414. 
Howard,  General,  125, 128, 129, 155, 156. 
Howell,  Judge,  332,  335. 
Huff,  John  A.,  250. 
Humphreys,  General,  281,  287,   289, 


Humphrey's  Station,  270. 

Hunter,  Major,  95,   167,  170,  !75,  172r 

180, 181,  182,  252. 

Huutsville,  Alabama,  148,  155. 
Hurlbut,  General,  106,  124, 125. 

Illinois,  126. 

Imboden,  General,  313,  314. 

Imperialists,  The,  319,  323. 

Indiana,  125. 

Indian  difficulties,  424. 

Hill,  131. 

Peace  Commission,  343. 

Territory,  166,  157.  307,  354,. 
Indian  tribes,  344. 
Infantry  Regiments: 

Eighty-ninth  Illinois,  103. 

Eighty-third  Illinois,  99. 

Fifteenth  Illinois,  150. 

Fifteenth  Kentucky,  90. 

Fifteenth  Ohio,  103.  104. 

Forty-ninth  Ohio,  103. 

Fourth,  34. 

Ninety-third  Ohio,  103. 

One     Hundred    and    First 
Illinois,  100. 

One  Hundred  and  Twenty- 
third  Illinois,  100. 

Seventeenth  and  Eighteenth 
Kansas  Volunteers,  344. 

Seventy-second  Indiana,  102. 

Thirteenth  Mississippi.  88. 

Thirteenth,   United    State* 
Army,  422. 

Thirty-fourth      Massachu- 
setts, 142. 

Thirty-ninth         Indiana 
Mounted,  103. 

Thirty-second  Indiana,  103. 

Twenty-first  Illinois,  Com- 
pany K,  96. 

Twenty-third  Illinois,  102. 
[ngalls,  General,  301. 
Ingalls,  Senator,  at  St.  Matthew's, 

407. 

Innes,  Colonel,  106. 
Innes,  General,  125. 
Invitations  to  attend  Sheridan's 

funeral,  40a,  406. 
Irving,  158. 
luka,  Miss.,  66,  68. 

Jackson,  General  T.  J.  (StonewallK. 

70,  73,  182,  313,  365. 
James  River,  258,  262,  264,  309. 


442 


INDEX. 


Jasper,  125. 
Jaurez,  323,  327. 
Jefferson  City,  345. 
Jersey  City,  Funeral  train  »t,  896. 
Jetersville,  289,  290,  291,  292. 
Johnson,  Andrew,  67,  330,  332,  333. 
Johnson,  Mr.,  337,  338. 
Johnson's  Creek,  108. 
Johnson's  Pass,  Lookout  Mount- 
ain, 114. 

Johnston,  Albert  Sidney,  305. 
Johnston,  Bushrod,  102, 103,  104, 106, 

108,  116,  134,  271,  273. 
Johnson,   General  Joseph    E.,  76, 

80,  87,  97,  98,  106, 112, 115,  125,  128, 

156,  213,  266,  305. 
Jones'  Bridge,  172. 
Jones,  Chief  Clerk,  Confederate 

State  Department,  262. 
Jones,  General  W.  S.,  167. 
Jones,  Lieutenant-Colonel,  102. 
Jones,  Senator,  428. 
Jordan,    Captain    United     States 

Army;   Beauregard's   Chief  of 

Staff,  38. 

Jordan,  Colonel,  102,  305. 
Justicia,  Sister,  381,  393. 

Kansas  Struggle,  38. 

Jayhawker,  41. 

Regular    Army  feeling  to- 
ward, 42, 156, 157. 

Department  of,  304. 

Indians  in,  344. 

Pacific  Railroad,  346. 
Kautz,  General  August  V.,  158,  172, 

173, 174,  177.  240. 
Kearney,  General  Philip,  326. 
Kelley's  Farm,  115. 

Ford,  125. 

Kelley,  General,  143, 170. 
Kellogg,  Captain  S.  C.,  360. 

At  Nouquit,  393. 

Captain,  118. 
Kelly,  Mr.,  364. 
Kelton,  J.  C.,  360. 
Kentucky,  106,  364,  125. 
Kentucky,  Southern,  77,  80. 
Kervick,  Father  T.  J.,  409. 

Celebrates    requiem    mass, 

400. 

Killed  and  wounded  from  the  Wil- 
derness to  the  James  River,  159. 
Killey,  Joseph,  engineer,  395. 
Kilpatrick,  General  Judson,  240,  241, 

249,  253.  254,  259,  309,  311. 
Kimball,  Bugler  Charles,   sounds 
"taps"  at    General  Sheridan's 
grave,  416. 
Kinderhook,  99. 
King,  General  H.  C.,  433. 

General,  116, 117. 
Kiowas,  Hostility  of  the,  344, 345. 
Kirk's  Brigade,  86. 
Klamath  Lake,  36. 
Klien,  Sheridan's  servant,  380. 
Knoxville,  Tenn.,  113, 124,  126,  127, 

148,  147, 155,  251. 
Ku-Klux  Klan,  340. 

Lafayette,  106, 109, 114. 

Lafayette  and  Rossville  Road,  115. 

La  Grange,  Colonel,  239. 

Lament,  Colonel,  368. 

Lancaster,  76. 

Las  Cruces,  New  Mexico,  328. 

Latrobe,  Colonel,  297. 

Lavergne.  81. 

Lawtou,  Captain,  405. 

Lebanon,  Ky.,  71, 100. 

Lebo,  Colonel,  348. 

Lee,  General  Robert  E.,19, 20, 106, 113, 
153,156,  158,160.  164,  174,  179,  186, 
254,  261,  263,  265,  266,  269,  281,  282, 
285,  287,  288,  289,  290,  291,  293,  294, 
295,  297,  300,  301,  305,  307,  308,  309, 
398,  417.  421. 

Surrender  of,  431, 432. 
Major-General      Fitzhugh, 
168,  169, 171,  173,  305,  314. 


Lee,  Major-General  W.  H.  F.,  168, 
169,  310. 

Major  George.  366. 
Lee  and  Gordon's  Mill,  vl  14. 
Letcher,  Governor,  308.    •"* 
Lexington,  176. 
Libby  Prison,  254. 
Liberty  Gap,  102, 103, 104. 
Liddel,  General,  73,  87,  91, 116, 117. 
Liddel's  Brigade,  103. 
Lilley,  Captain,  102. 
Limestone,  Ala.,  239. 
Lincoln,  Abraham,  18,  42, 94, 180, 181, 


Assassination  of,  317. 

Mock  funeral  of,  324. 

Mr.,   of    the   Grand   Army, 
at  Sheridan's  funeral,  408. 
Littlepage's  Ford,  164. 
Little  River,  164. 
Little  Rock,  Ark.,  321,  ?22. 
Logan,  General  John  A.,  65, 125,  321, 

'Funeral  of,  382,406. 
Lloyd,  197. 

Loifdolt,  Lieutenant-Colonel  Ber- 
nard, 71. 
Lonaax,  Brigadier-General  L.    L., 

168,  186,  220,  243,  244. 
London  Editors,  425. 
Lone  Star  State,  The,  329. 
Long  Bridge,  172. 

Longstreet,  General,  106, 113, 115, 117, 
118, 120, 126, 127, 136, 147, 148, 158, 160, 
207,  296,  297,  299,  308,  309,  313,  314. 
Lookout  Creek,  108. 

Mountain,   108,  109,  113,  123, 

127, 146. 

Valley,  126, 127, 148. 
Loomis,  Captain  and  Battery  res- 
cued by  Sheridan,  74,  87. 
Loudon,  Tenu.,  127.  148. 
Loudoun  County,  Va.,  137,  313, 
Heights,  139, 142, 143. 
Valley,  257. 
Louisiana,  155, 157. 
Louisville,  124, 125, 148. 

Legion,  103. 
Lovingston,  262. 
Lowell.  240,  253. 
Loyal  Legion,  J 
Luray.  257. 
Luray  Valley,  202,  243. 
Lydecker,  Major,  at  Arlington,  406. 
Lyell,  274. 
Lynchburg,  161, 170, 171, 172,  176,  186, 

257,  259,  261,  262,  264, 265,  294,  303. 
Lyons,  General  Nathaniel  B.,  45. 

MacFeeley,  General,  at  Arlington, 

'At  St.  Matthew's,  408. 
Mackey,   Mr.    John   W.,   sends    a 

floral  gift,  403. 

Mackin,  Father  J.  F.,  celebrant,  409. 
Madison  Court  House,  258. 
Mag-ruder,  Ex-Congressman,  314 
MaUone,  General,  74,  217,  294. 
Mallory,  Secretary,  262. 
Maloney.    Major,   United  States 

Army,  38. 


Manchester,  Tenn.,  101, 106. 

Manderson,  Senator,  360. 

Manitoba,  359. 

Manly,  87. 

Manning,  Colonel,  297. 

"  March  to  the  Sea,"  111. 

Marches  thirty  miles  a  day,  304. 

Marmaduke,  General,  41. 

Marrigault,  87. 

Marshal  I,  Colonel,  301. 

Martin,  General,  107. 

Martinsburg.  194. 

Maryland  Heights,  139. 

Maryland  Volunteers,  143. 

Marysville,  Ky.,  71. 

Mason,  323. 

Massachusetts  Commandery,  390. 

Massanutten  Mountain,  219. 


Matamoras,  Mexico,  319,  322. 

Imperialists,  324. 
Matthews,  Doctor,  380. 

Stanley,  67,  78. 
Maximilian,  319,  322,  323,  329. 
McCahn,  Lieutenant.  390. 
McCarthy,  Justin,  426. 
McCausland.  180. 
McClellan,  General  George  B.,  42, 65, 

214,  240,  248,  249,  253. 
McClernand,  65. 

McCook,  Colonel  Daniel,  71,  74,  76, 
99, 115. 

General  Alexander  D.,  70,  71, 
74,  76,78,80,81,82,  83.  85,  86, 
89,  101,  103,  104, 105, 108,  114, 
116, 117, 120. 
Edward,  65. 

McCown,  General,  86,  89,  91,  98, 100. 
McCullough,  General  Benjamin,  41, 

305. 

McDowell,  308. 
McGonigle,  Colonel,  348. 
McGraw,  orderly,  37. 
McGregor,  Mount,  377. 
McKenzie,  General,  158,  252,  272,  274, 


McLaws,  115. 

McLean,  William,  Residence  of,  300, 

McLemore's  Cove,  114. 

McMinnsville,  Tenn.,  101, 106, 112. 

McNair,  87,  91. 

McNally,  teacher,  26 

McPhersou,  General,  124,  125,  127, 
147.  148,  155,  210,  240. 

Me  William  s,  General,  210. 

Meade,  General,  19, 146,  153,  155,  156, 
158,  160,  164,  173,  176,  178,  186,  241, 
254,  287,  288,  291,  292,  293,  300,  366, 
429. 

Meadow  Bridge,  162. 

Mechanics  Hall,  332,  335. 

Mechanicsville,  162. 

Meherrin  Station,  174. 

Meigs,  Lieutenant,  203. 

Mejia,  General,  323,  324. 

Memphis,  Tenn.,  106, 110, 124,  148. 

Merritt,  General  Wesley,  158,  160, 
182,  186,  194,  240,  243,  244,  246,  263, 
257,  260,  272,  289,  290,  291,  292,  298, 

Mesila  Valley,  New  Mexico,  828. 

Metz,  353,  354. 

Mexican  Congress.  327. 
Free  Zone,  323. 
Republic,  318,  321, 322. 323. 

Mexico,  359. 

Michigan  Engineers,  106. 

Middleburg,  253, 258. 

Middletown,  99, 202,  212,  215,  221,  222. 

Milburp,  Rev.  W.  H.,  offers  prayer 
in  the  house,  388. 

Miles'  Division,  289. 

Milford,  163,  202. 

Military  Institute,  Governor's  Is- 
land, 214. 

Mill  Creek,  212. 

Millwood.  194,  201. 

Milton,  Tenn.,  100. 

Mine  at  Petersburg,  177,  178. 

Minty.  Colonel,  99, 100, 107,  185. 

Missionary  Ridge,  98,  110,  114,  115, 
119, 120,  123,  127,  128,  129,  134,  135, 
136,  146.  147,  148,  157. 

Mission  Mills,  134. 

Mississippi,  148,  365. 

Department  of,  98. 

Division  of,  125. 

River,  77, 110,  125, 155,  322. 

Missouri,  Department  of,  304,  343, 
349. 

Valley,  Tribes  of,  844. 

Mitchel,  General  O.  M.,  65,  67. 

Mitchell's  Cavalry,  116. 

Mitchell,  General  Robert  B.,  66, 
70.  74, 120, 125. 

Mobile,  124. 

Mobile  and  Ohio  Railroad,  52,  64. 
Monocacy,  176, 181, 182,  218. 


INDEX. 


44? 


MonohanBett,  steamer,  393. 

Monroe,  Colonel,  102. 

Monroe  Doctrine,  424. 

Montgomery,  259. 

Moonlight,  General  Thomas  J.,  238, 

Moore,  Major  Tom,  366. 

Morgan,  General  J.  H.,  67,  78,  80,  97, 

100,  217,  238,  258,  310,  407,  428. 
Moseby,  General  John  L.,  137,  138, 

143.  238,  258,  305,  30d,  311,  312,  314. 
Moselle.  353,  354. 
Mountain  Gap,  76. 
Mount  Vernon,  79. 
Jackson,  246. 
Mules,  Battle  of  the,  126. 
Munroe,  J.  T.,  334,  339. 
Murat,  19. 
Murdoch,  James  E  ,  230. 


Palmyra,  99. 

Pamunkey  River,  26'1. 

Panama,  366. 

Paris,  Comte  De,  74,  81,  85,  91,  92,  118, 
121. 

Paris,  France,  258,  328. 

Parke,  287. 

Parker,  Colonel  Eli,  301. 
j  Paso  Del  Norte,  Mexico,  327. 
!  Pastors  of  city  churches  at  Sheri- 
dan's funeral,  409. 

Paxton,  143. 

Paxton's  cross-roads,  137. 

Pea  Ridge,  159. 

Pegram's  Cavalry,  115. 

Pemberton,  97. 

Peninsula  Campaign,  308. 


Music  at  St.  Matthew's,  407. 
Mussle  Shoals,  123. 

Napoleon,  Louis,  323,  354. 

Surrender  of,  350,  351. 
Nantucket,  376. 
Narragausett  Bay,  376. 
Nashville,  Term.,  67,  69,  'O,  77,  80,  97, 

100,110,112,113,148,150,158. 
Nashville  and  Chattanooga  Rail- 

road, 112. 
Nashville  and   Decatur  Railroad, 

127. 
National  Military  Cemetery,  420. 

Sheridan  at,  422. 
Negley,  General,  82,  85,  87,  88,  89,  90, 

91,  96,  102,  104,  105,  108,  115,  116,  125. 
Negley's  Division,  80. 
Nelson,  65,  69. 

Nelson  and  Pitman's  cross-roads,  76. 
Nesrmth,  Senator,  Oregon,  38. 
New  Bedford,  Mass.,  376. 
New  Bern,  259. 
New  Haven,  Reunion  at,  436. 
NewMarket,  202,  262. 
New  Mexico,  326. 
New  Orleans,  La.,  201,  259,  364. 

Massacre,  110,  322,  337,  339. 
Newtown,  215. 
New  York,  366. 
New  York  Sun,  The,  427. 
Ney,  Marshal,  Sheridan    compared 

Nickajack  Valley,  108. 
Ninety-eighth  Illinois,  102,  103. 
Nolensville,  80,  81. 
Nonquit,  359,  367. 

Delicacy  of  People  of,  393. 

Description  of,  376,  379. 

The  dead  general  at,  392,  393. 
North  Anna,  158,  162,  163,  164. 
North  Mountain,  202. 
Northern  Georgia,  106,  123. 
Northwestern  Department,  106. 
Nottoway  Station,  173,  289. 

Ohio,  106,  125. 

Governor    of,   official    pro- 

clamation, 390. 
"  Old  Brains,"  110. 
Old  Cold  Harbor,  164. 
Opequan,  193,  194,  195,  197,  201,  224. 
Orchaai   Knob,  128,  129,  130,  131.  133, 

Ord.  General,  178,  240,  281,  287,  293, 

295,  300,  301,  302. 
Ordnance  Department  at  Washing- 

ton, Guns  returned  to,  369. 
O'Reilly,  Dr.,  380,  383. 
Original  Reconstruction  Act,  337. 
Osterhaus,  129 
Owen's  Ford,  116. 

Paine,  Brigadier-General  H.  A.,  176. 
Fame's  cross-roads,  291. 
Painsville,  292. 
Pall-bearers,  406. 

Palmer,  General,  81,  89,  116,  125,  128, 
147,  857. 


Pennsylvania,  138. 
Pennsylvania  Railroad, 


395. 


Pension  to  Mrs.  Sheridan,  388. 

Pepper.  Doctor,  379,  383. 

Perry  ville,  Ky.,   68,  75,  76,  109,  146, 

159. 
Petersburg,  Va.,  19,  172,  173,  174,  177, 

179,  188,  214,  257,  258,  262,  264,  266, 

267,  269,  272,  274,  281,  287,  289. 
Petticoat  Gap,  194. 
Peytonville,  99. 
Phelps,  General,  135,  238. 
Philip,  240. 
Piatt,  Donn,  70. 

Pickett,  General,  271,  273,  285,  297. 
Piedmont,  175. 
Pierce,  President,  305. 
Pierce,  Secretary  of  State  Henry  B., 

of  Missouri,  394. 
Pigeon  Mountain,  106,  144. 
j  Pike,  General  Albert,  41. 
Pike's  Opera  House,  231. 
Pittsburg  Lauding,  48,  110,  182. 
1  Plains  region,  346 
Pleasonton,  General  Alfred,  146,  157, 

238,  240. 

Plumb,  Senator,  429,  430. 
Plumber,  The  reporter  disguised  as 

a,  376. 

Plymouth  Harbor,  369. 
Pocotaligo,  258. 
Polk,    General,  at  Perryville  and 

Stone  River,  67,  70,  90,  91,  97,  109, 

llo,  116. 

Pout-a-Mousson,  350. 
Pope,  General  John,  45,  46,  47,  106, 

125,  322. 

Poplar  Grove,  99. 
Porter,  General  Horace,  285,  286,  301, 

303,  309. 

Port  Hudson,  97,  159,  176. 
Port  Republic,  203. 
Post's  Brigade,  86. 
Potomac  Army,  137,  292,  295. 

River,  138,  139, 

Route,  The,  396. 
Powell,  General,  243. 
Preston,  115. 
Price,  Sterling,  41,  67,  156,   217,  238, 

304,  305,  320,  329. 
Pritchard,  Colonel,  239. 
Prussian   Third  Corps  storm    La 

Garenne,  351. 
Pueblo,  Mexico,  327. 
Putnam,  240,  253. 

Quaker  Road,  269,  273,  278. 

guantrell,  238. 

Queretaro,  Mexico,  323,  329. 

Raccoon  Mountain,  108. 

Rains,  Major,  37,  41,  91. 

Rain-in-the-Face,  359. 

Rapidan,  19. 

Rappahannock,  158. 

Rawlins,  General  John  A  ,  301,  355. 

Rea,  General,  pays  tribute  to  the 
memory  of  Sheridan,  390. 

Read,  General,  314. 

T.  Buchanan,  230. 
i  Readville,  80. 

Reagan,  Postmaster-General,  262. 
!  Reams  Station,  173,  174. 


Rector's  cross-road,  253. 
Red  Cloud,  359. 
Red  River,  156, 157. 
Reed's  Bridge,  115. 
Registration,  Order  for,  339. 
Representatives,  The,  at  St.  Mat- 
thew's, 407. 

Resolutions  of  Congress,  387. 
Reynolds,  General,  107,  108, 117, 240, 
321. 

Colonel,  102. 
Rhodes,  General,  196. 
Richard,  General  Sheridan's  body 

servant,  at  St.  Matthew's,  408. 
Richmond,  Ky.,  76. 
Richmond,  Va.,  150,  160,  161, 162,  168, 
178,  179,  180,  205,  214,  218,  247,  249, 
253,  257,  258,  2o9,  261,  262,  263,  265, 
278,  281,  289,  299,  308,  321,  423,  429, 
430. 

Ricketts.  General,  176,  196. 
"  Rienzi."  66.  214. 
Rig-by,  Captain,  196. 
Riley,  Fort,  344.  345. 
Riiifirerold.  134, 147,  148. 
Rio  Grande  Bravo  Del  Norte,    824 
River.  318,  321,   322,   323,   336, 

327,  359,  424. 
Ripley,  General,  66. 
Rivers,  Lieutenant,  142. 
Robert,  Colonel,  84.  85,  87,  89. 
Roberts,  General.  312.  313. 
Robins,  Colonel  W.  T.,  309. 
Rochester.  N.  Y.,  214. 
Rock  Creek,  104, 105. 
RockforclGap  260. 
"  Rock  of  Chickamauga,"  118. 
Rodd,  T..  fireman,  395. 
Rome,  Tenn.,  100. 
Romero.  323. 

Rosebud,  Dakota,  247,  359. 
Rosecrans,  General,  praises  Sheri- 
dan, 42,  61,  66. 

Other  movements,  111,  112, 
113,  114,  llo,  116,  118,  120, 
121,  124,  125,  157,  238,  304, 
3io! 

Prepares  to  move  on  Chatta- 
nooga, 94, 109. 
Recommends   Sheridan  for 

promotion,  95. 
Stone  River,  75,  91. 
Thanks  of  Lincoln  and  Hal- 
leek  for  Stone  River,  94, 95. 
Roster  of  Army  of  the  Shenandoah. 
Middle  Military  Division,  188  to 

"'  Of  Army  of   the  Valley  Dis- 
trict, Confederate,  224. 
Of   Cavalry   Corps    of    the 
Army  of  the  Potomac,  un- 
der Sheridan,  150, 154. 
Rossvllle,  114,115,120. 
Rossville  road,  117, 119. 
Rosser,  General  W.  H.  H.,  159,  168, 
169,  182,  204.  221,  242,  243,   244,  246, 
247,  257,  260,  261,  313,  314,  368. 
Rosser,  Tenn.,  99,  100. 
Rousseau,  General   L.  H.,  41,  70,  81, 

89,  90,  96,  102,  104,  105. 
"  Rosy,"  125. 

Rucker,  John  A.,  drowned,  372. 
Rucker,  Francis  D.,  372. 
Rucker,   General   D.  H.,  father  of 
Mrs.  Sheridan,  371. 

At  St.  Matthew's,  400. 
Selects   Sheridan's    burial- 
place,  406. 

Mrs.,  at  St.  Matthew's,  400. 
Russian  Fleet,  323. 
Russell.  240. 

Rutherford's  Creek,  100. 
Ryan,  Father  S.  F.,  sub-deacon,  409. 
Ryan's,  Mike,  supplies,  96. 

Salem,  258. 

San  Antonio,  307. 

Sand  Creek,  345. 

Sand  Mountain  Cliffs,  113. 

Savannah,  Ga.,  captured,  258. 


444 


INDEX. 


Savior's  Creek.  267,  424. 

Battle  of,  293,  294. 
Schaeffer,  General,  85,  88,  89. 
Schoepff,  Brigadier-General  Albert, 

70,  72. 

Schofleld,  Major-General  J.  M.,  78, 
106, 155,  350,  427. 

Calls  out  a  military  escort 

for  the  funeral,  4o3. 
Receives   funeral   party   at 

cemetery  gates,  414,  415 
Takes    charge    of    General 

Sheridan's  funeral,  386. 
Schultze,  Sergeant,  United  States 

Army,  40. 
Scott,  Martin,  24. 
Scott,  Colonel,  158. 
Scott,  Lieuteuaut-General,  150,  237, 

307. 

Scottsville,  262. 
Scranton,  Lieutenant,  53. 
Scribner.  90. 
Scribner's  Brigade,  116. 
Secretary  of  Navy  sends  dispatch 

to  Nonquit,  390. 

Secretary  of  War  announces  Gene- 
ral Sheridan's  death  to  the 
Army,  391. 

Sedan,  350,  351,  352,  353. 
Sedgwick,    Major     John,     United 
States  Army,  40. 
General,  158. 
Selma,  Ala ,  259. 
Sequatchie  Valley,  112,  124. 
Seven  Pines,  Battle  of,  309. 
Seventeenth  Indiana.  102,  103. 
Seward,  William  H.,318,  323,  328. 
Shellabarger,  Judge,  338. 
Shelbyville,  Tenn.,  71, 100, 101,  105. 
Shelby,  General,  359. 
Shepherd.  Colonel,  90. 
Shenandoah  Valley,  19,  43,  44.  153, 
257,  274,  282  286,  320,  346,  368,  423. 
River,  139. 
Army  of  the,  283. 
Sheridan,  Family: 

At  St.  Matthew's,  407. 
At  the  Grave,  416. 
Colonel  Michael  V.,  brother 
of  General,  23,  24,  360,  366, 
393,  400. 

Daughters  of  General:  Irene, 
Louise,  and  Mary,  373,  381, 
393. 

John,  brother  of    General, 
23.  24;    At  St.   Matthew's, 
400. 
John,  father  of  General,  23, 

24;  Death  of,  373. 
Mary,   mother   of    General, 

23,  24. 

Mary,  sister  of  General,  23. 
Mrs.  Irene  M.,  Wife  of  Gene- 
ral; Sketch  of,  371,  374. 
Mrs.  Michael  V.,  393. 
Patrick  H.,  brother  of  Gen- 
eral, 23,  24. 
Philip,  Son  of  General,  373, 

381,  393. 

Rosa,  sister  of  General,  23. 
Sheridan,  Philip  Henry: 

Acting  Chief  Commissary, 

After   the  Wilderness    and 
before  the   Army    of  the 
Potomac      quartered     on  i 
the  James,  161-165. 

Appointed  Colonel  Second 
Michigan  Cavalry  47,  48.  49. 

Appointed  major  -  general, 
214. 

As  a  General,  17-21. 

Assigned  as  chief  quarter- 
master. 41. 

Assigned  to  Third  Army 
Corps,  70. 

At  Cedar  Creek.  187. 

At  Missionary  Ridge,  130-135, 

At  Perryville,  71,  75. 

At  Stone  River,  76-91. 


Sheridan.  Philip  Henry: 

Battle  of  Booneville,  51-61. 
Breaking    the   £!onfederate 

communications,  f68-174. 
Brevet    First     Lieutenant, 

32. 
Brevet  Second  Lieutenant, 

32. 

Brigadier,  68. 
Cadet.  29,  30,  31. 
Captain,  41. 
Captures  mail,  66. 
Capturing  Booneville,  62. 
Commands  brigade,  65,  67. 
Compared  to  Sherman,  424. 
Commeuded  by  Grant,  135. 
Engagement    at    Baldwin  s- 

ville,  64. 

Family  and  birthplace,  23. 
First  Battle,  51. 
First  railroad  raid,  63. 
Forces  of  April  1, 1865,  273. 
Funeral  escort.  387. 
Funeral  services  of,  407,  414. 
Funeral  train,  394,  395 
Grant's  estimate  of,  17. 
Halleck    recommends   pro- 
motion, 65. 
His  report  on  the  battle  of 

Murfreesboro',  83,  84,  85. 
His  training  on  the  field  of 

Chickaniausra,  110-121. 
In  command  Third  Division, 

Twentieth  Corps,  76. 
In  Texas  and  Oregon  fight- 
ing Indians,  35,  36,  37. 
In   the  Shenandoah  Valley, 

185. 
Moving    towards     Chicka- 

mauga,  94-109. 
Ordered  to  Europe.  350. 
Ordered  to  Louisville.  67. 
Order  of  funeral  march,  414, 

415. 
Perryville  to  Stone  River, 

75-92. 
Presented  with  s^ord  and 

other    accoutrements,   98. 
Put    in    command   of     the 

Cavalry   of   the    Army  of 

the  Potomac,  146. 
Relieved,  44 
Reorganizes    the    Cavalry, 

Ride  from  Winchester,  208, 

229-234. 
Rosecraus  commends    skill 

and  coolness,  64. 
School    days,  27,  28. 
Sedan,  At  Battle  of,  351. 
Second  Virginia  Raid,  167. 
"Sheridan,  Philip  Henry,"  Poem, 

398. 
"  Sheridan's  Ride,"  poem,  234. 

Writing  of  Poem,  230. 
Sherman,  General  William  Tecuru- 
seh,  65,  97,  106,  111,  124,  125,  126, 
127,  128,  129,  130,  135,  136,  146,  147, 
148, 150,  155,  156,  177,  247,  258,  259, 
266,  317,  318,  341,  343,  348,  349,  359, 
364,  366,  367. 

At   Sheridan's   funeral,  408, 

409.  414,  416. 

At  Sheridan's  grave,  417. 
Sherman-Johnson  compact,  317. 
SLiloh,  Field  of,  45,  110,  307. 
Shreveport,  La.,  156,  321. 
Sibley,  General.  305,  327,  328,  359. 
Sickles,  Major-Geueral  D.  E.,  426, 

427. 

Sierra  Madre,  327. 
Sigel,  175,  252. 
Sill,  Brigadier-General,  72,  7f,  84,  86, 

87,  88,  89. 

Silver  Springs,  Md.,  176. 
Sisters  of  the  Holy  Child,  Convent 

of,  371. 

Sitting  Bull,  359. 
Sixth  Indiana,  103. 
Slidell,  323. 


§  lough,  Colonel,  328. 
malley,   George  V.,  describes  the 

battle  of  Sedan,  351,  352. 
Smith,  Captain,  of  the  Monohan- 

sett,  393. 

Smith,  General  G.,  100. 
Smith,  General  Kirby.  67,  71,  97,  98. 

156, 165,  172,  173,  320,  323,  329. 
Smith,  Captain  140. 
Smith,  General  W.  F.,  125, 126. 
Smoky  Hill,  Indian  atrocities  at, 

340. 

Snicker  Gap,  258. 
Somerset,    Ohio,    Early    home    of 

Sheridan,  23. 
Sonora,  27. 
South.  Central,  97. 
South  Chickamauga,  129. 
Southern  Virginia,  147. 
Southside  railroad,  269,  272. 
Spanish  oppressors,  327. 
Sppar,  158. 
Spencer  Rifles,  102. 
Spotted  Tail,  3o9. 
Spottsylvania,  153,  158,  159,  160,  161, 

163,  258. 

Springfield,  Tenn.,  71,  100. 
Spring  Hill,  Tenn..  Battle  of,  99, 100. 
Stanberry,  Attorney-General,   339. 
Stanford,  76. 
Stanley,  General,  43,  80,  89,  106,  106, 

125,  238,  240. 

Stanton,  Secretary,  124,  125. 
Starkweather,  General,  73,   116.  117. 
State  Constitutional   Convention, 

308. 
Staunton,  167,  170,  171,  175,  178,  180, 

183,  197,  ^03.  214,  260.  321. 
Steudman,  General,  119.  120,  126. 
Steele,  Frederick,  240.  305. 

General,  155, 156,  157. 
Stephen's  Gap,  108. 
Stephenson,  106, 113. 
Stewart,  89,  115. 
Stewart's  Creek,  81. 
St.  Louis,  Mo.,  157,  322. 
St.  Matthew's  Church,  396,  400. 

Decorations   at,  401,  402,  403. 
Stoneman,  238,  240,  269,  311 
Stone  River,  74,  91,  94,  95,  97,  109, 159, 


Stormy  Point.  258. 

Strasburg,  185,  186,  187,  196,  302,  208, 

204.244,257,354. 
Stuart,  General  J.  E.  B.,  160, 162, 169, 

205,  241,  305,  307,  309.  310,  311,  312, 

313,  4'29. 

Death  of,  at  Yellow  Tavern, 

307. 

Sturgis,  General,  240,  350. 
Sullivan,  General,  66,  142,  143. 
Summer,  Colonel,  345. 
Summertown,  109. 
Summit  Point,  194. 
Sumner,  General,  41. 
Sword,  General  Sheridan'*,  taken 

from  the  coffin.  416. 
Sycamore  Ford,  309. 
Sykes,  240. 


Table  at  which  Lee  sat,  203. 
Talbot.  Henry,  24. 
Tautallont,  105. 
Taylor,  Dick,  156.320. 
Taylor,  General  Zachary,  366. 
Tennessee,  106, 110, 124, 129,  147,  148. 

Central,  80. 

East  and  South,  97. 

Eastern,  106,  112,  125.  147,  148, 
155. 

Northern,  77. 

River,  94,  105,  107, 108,  111,  112, 


^13,127,128,150. 


Valley,  113. 

Terrell,  Cadet-Sergeant,  32,  360. 
Texas,  155,  157. 

Legion.  First,  101. 
Thirty-ninth  Indiana  Mounted  In- 
fantry, 102. 


INDEX. 


44? 


Thomas,  General  George  H.,  39,  40, 
65,  71,  74,  75,  91,  96, 105,  108,  114,  115, 
116,  117.  118, 119, 120,  121,  125,  127, 
128, 129, 130, 131,  134,  148,  240,  251, 
307. 

Thompson  Station,  100. 

Thoroughfare  Gap,  253. 

Thousand  Islands,  376. 

Throckmorton,  Mr.,  338,  339. 

Tin  Mountain,  104. 

Todd's  Tavern,  153, 159,  160. 

Tolersville,  Va.,  263. 

Tompkins,  General,  in  command 
of  funeral  escort,  406. 

Tom's  Run,  244. 

Torbett,  Major-General  A.  T.  A., 
158, 182.  186,  194,  202,  204,  240,  243, 
244,  247,  249,  252,  258,  282, 311. 

Torcy,  351. 

Tours,  355. 

Tracy  City,  104. 

Trenton.  107,  108. 
Valley,  113. 

Trevilian  Station,  172, 247. 

Triune,  80, 81, 108. 

Tucson,  Ariz.,  328. 

Tullahoma,  80,  94,  97, 101, 104, 109,  112, 
113,  423. 

Tunnel  Hill,  147. 

Tupelo,  69. 

Turchin,  General,  105,  120. 

Turkeytown,  243. 

Tuscaloosa,  259. 

Tuscumbia,  106. 

Twentieth  Corps,  82,  86, 101. 

Twiggs,  Major-General,  307. 

Union  forces,  150. 

Union,  Fort,  birth-place  of  Mrs. 
Sheridan,  371. 

Unionville,  99, 100. 

United  States  Senators'  floral  trib- 
ute, 403. 

University,  105. 

Urban.  Sister,  393. 

Utes,  The,  344. 

Valley  Head,  113. 
Valley  of  Virginia,  299. 
Van  Cleve.  87,  89, 106, 115, 117. 
Vancouver,  Washington  Territory, 

Vaudever,  116, 135. 

Van  Dorn,  General,  41, 67,  76, 100,  305. 

Vaughan  road,  269,  281. 


Vaughn,  87. 

Vernon,  Captain,  142,  144. 
Vicksburg,  97, 106, 112, 113, 124, 159, 251 
Vienna,  329. 
Vilas,  Secretary,  408. 
Virginia,  106.  139,  146,  150. 
Voorhees,     Lieutenant  -  Governor, 
334. 

Wagner,  General,  107, 109, 132. 136. 
Walbridge,  Quartermaster  F.  E.,47. 
Waldron  Ridge,  112. 123,  125. 
Wallace,  General  Lew,  65, 176,  218. 
Walker,  General,  106, 115,  116. 
Walker,  Hon.  A.  F.,  210. 
Walthall,  General,  116. 
Walthall's  Brigade.  117. 
Warren,  General,  158, 159, 163, 165, 172, 

178,  270,  271,  273,  274,  276,  277,   281, 

286. 

Corps  of,  273. 
Warrenton,  258. 
Washington,  D.  C.,  124,  145,  150,  155, 

176,  180,  182,  185,  193,  205,  206,  218, 

321,  350,  358,  359,  361,  396. 
Monument,  The,  417. 
Waterville,  143. 
Wauhatchie,  126. 
Waynesboro,  203,  248,  260,  261,  264. 
Webster,  73. 
Weitzel,    Major-General    Godfrey, 

281,  321,  322,  323,  324,  329. 
Wellington,  Duke  of,  434. 
Wells,  J.  Madison,  331, 338,  339,  340. 
West  Chickamauga,  109. 
Western  Maryland,  138. 
West  Point,  247,  366,  437. 
West,  Senator,  328. 

At  St.  Matthew's,  407. 
Wharton,  General,  82,  86,  89,  97,  99, 

103,  407. 

Wheaton's  Division,  294. 
Wheeler,  General  Joseph  A.,  78,  82, 

97,  99,  104, 107,  115,  127,  217,  255,  305, 

306,311,388,405. 
White  House,  163,  172,  262,  263,  264, 

265,  337. 

White  League  conspiracy,  340, 341. 
White  Oak    road,  269,  270,    271,  274, 

275,  289. 

White  Plains,  258. 
Whitman,  Dr  ,  Massacre,  34. 
Whitman,  Walt,  396,  428. 
Whitney,  Secretary,  at  Sheridan's 

funeral,  408. 


Whittaker,  Brigadier-General,  120, 
296. 

Wichita  River,  SJ47. 

Wickham,  Brigadier-General  W.  E., 
168, 169,  182,  202,  305,  314. 

Wilcox,  General,  125. 

Wilder,  General,  100, 102, 103, 107, 125, 
238. 

Wilderness,  Battle  of  the,  159. 

Wilkinson's  cross-roads,  81. 

Williams,  General  Seth,  301. 

Willich,  General,  86,  103, 104. 

Will's  VaUey,  107, 108. 

Wilmington,  259. 

Wilson,  Colonel  John  M.,  takes 
charge  of  seating  arrangements 
at  St.  Matthew's,  406. 

Wilson,  John,  married  Mary  Sheri- 
dan, 23. 

Wilson,  General,  153,  158,  159,  160, 
173, 186, 195,  202,  239,  240,  251. 

Winchester,  104,  105,  106, 112, 113, 179, 
186,  187,  188,  193,  195,  196,  200,  207, 
212,  215,  218,  224,  229,  248,  257,  258, 


Window  Shades,  172. 
Wind  River  County,  368. 
Winslow,  General,  238. 
Winthrop,  General,  killed,  278. 
Withers,  General,  82,  88,  91. 
Wool,  General.United  States  Army, 

Wood,  Fort.  128, 131. 

Wood,  General  T.  J.,  85, 119,  125,  127, 

128, 129, 130,  132, 134,  135. 
Woodruff,  General,  81,  84,  86. 
Woodstock,  248. 
"  Woodstock  Races,"  244. 
Worth,  General,  365. 
Wright,  General  Horatio  J.,  67. 
Wright,  Marcus  J.,  Colonel,  United 

States  Army,  36, 3  7 ;  General,  67. 

70,  97.125,  158,  172, 179,  195,  202,  204, 

207,  220,  221, 257,  281,  287,  300. 
Wright,  Miss  Rebecca  I.,  197. 
Wyoming,  Indians  in,  344. 

Yakima  Indians,  36,  38. 

Yellowstone  Park,  368. 

Yellow  Tavern,  162,  241. 

York,  River,  310. 

Young,  John  R.,  266. 

Young,  Percy  M.  B.,  168, 169,  314. 

Yuma,  Arizona,  328. 


THE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  SANTA  CRUZ 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  DATE  stamped  below. 


71981  RHTD 


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